Do you ever ask yourself, what happens next? My brother Phil shared a video with me the other day. He often does when he comes across something he thinks I may enjoy or find useful (thanks, Phil!). I only had time to watch a few minutes then, an interview with writer/producer Andy Guerdat. But right off the bat, his subject reminded me of a key element of storytelling: getting your audience to care about your story.

Guerdat talks about maintaining an audience/reader mindset when storytelling. He uses the three-word question: “What happens next?” as the storyteller’s tactic to engage your readers, keep them entertained, and keep your story from becoming formulaic and predictable. Those three little words should be at the crux of writing engrossing tales.

The video continued in a film-related vein, and I’ll be honest, at first, I didn’t watch the entire clip. Primarily because as soon as Guerdat mentioned that three-word question, I stopped and thought about the novel I’m currently drafting, Book 3 of the Treasure Quest Series.

I considered it great timing to have heard that question this week.

I’d been planning to post an update on where I’m at with writing Book 3. I planned to share how the work is going, what my hopes and expectations for this draft are. And, truthfully, I’m struggling a bit with how the work is progressing.

So those words, that question, “what happens next?” gave me pause and helped me spend some time mulling a key point of why I write: to entertain and engage, inform and divert and escape.

Hearing the question stated so succinctly reminded me where and how to focus my efforts as I continue writing my WIP.

At the moment, I’ve hit a few snags. But I also have written more consistently than previously. One of the reasons—though I’ve told myself time and again to “just spit out the first draft, damn it, things will be fixed in edits!”—is because I’m writing key scenes that are set in Ireland. While some description and details can be added later, other info is relevant to the story and its progression. Additional research needs to happen up front in order for the tale to progress logically.

And, truthfully, doing that research also helps spark unique ideas. That’s one part of writing (of many!) that I truly love. I can have an idea on which I’ve built parts of a story, but then new research helps inform a cooler, better solution/outcome. Love, love, love that!! Though, of course, that can and does change other elements of the tale, so it’s another reason editing is so crucial. The story still has to work with however the new information has changed it.

So, writing is a struggle to balance research, completion (of draft #1), and plot/pacing. But, with all of that said, I am making progress. Check out this photo of my basic plotline.

I finally had to put this together to see what I had left to write and where I had holes. Especially because Book 3 is just that, the third of the series, and it has many loose ends to tie together. This isn’t everything, but these are the main moving parts. The green post-its are what I’d finished writing last year, and the pink notes are what I need to write to have a mostly finished first draft.

The good news is, I’m all the way through the pinks except for the final four!! Yay!!! Which is not to say I’m done when I finish those, but that will leave me very close with the first draft. I will be soooo freakin’ excited when I get there.

But, as I mentioned at the start, the essential question (or one of them) is still key to remember and view from the readers’ perspective: what happens next? I’ll need to make sure I keep you, dear reader, engaged with my story and characters. And hopefully you’ll enjoy this next story as much as the first two!! Fingers (and toes and everything!) crossed!!

For those of you interested, I went back and listened to the rest of the ten-minute video clip. Guerdat had other useful, writerly tidbits he shared. Check it out here and let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Given a couple cool items I uncovered with my online explorations last week, I’m hopefully on a surer path to completing the first draft. And I think as long as I keep asking “what happens next,” I’ll be able to convey the excitement I felt at the beginning of writing this story. What does my ideal reader want? To be engaged and enthralled and maybe even enlightened just a bit. 😉

So, dear readers, I’d best get back to work, hadn’t I? I’ve more to write and more to surprise you with. Thanks for reading and supporting … and stay tuned! And stay in touch, too. I really appreciate your thoughts and comments, so please say hi below or drop me a line at carolyn@carolyngreeley.com.

PS–If you’re curious to journey back in time with me, check out this older post of mine It’s True, I Do Exist. But TB Is Half Missing. – The Mystery of Relevance (carolyngreeley.com) from when I was writing Book 2, Treasure Bound. Oh, how the times have not changed! 😉 I’m still asking, what happens next?