When you’re crafting a story, you worry about characters, plot, and structure. You worry about making your characters relatable and empathetic. You worry about setting and tone.
You worry about whether your story is formatted properly. You worry about typos.
None of that is as important as the audience’s attention.
And there’s only one thing that grabs the audience’s attention, compelling them to keep reading or watching. Only one thing gets them roped into your story.
It’s not character, plot, structure, setting, tone, formatting, or correct spelling.
It’s mystery. It’s the one thing every story needs. There has to be an ever-deepening question or series of questions, unknowns the audience is desperate to know.
They want to know what’s going to happen next. They want to know how it’s going to turn out.
That’s all.
From the beginning of your story, a mystery needs to grab the audience’s attention and hold it long enough for you to introduce compelling characters and situations. Without this opening mystery, the audience won’t stick around long enough to get into the story.
Eventually, a well-crafted story will have a character with a struggle the audience empathizes with. This bond keeps them hooked through the end of the story. “Will the character win or lose?” “How will things work out?” These are the mysteries they crave throughout the story.
Don’t give too much away too soon. Keep questions unanswered. Make things intriguing. Draw out suspense.
To see mystery done well, watch The Matrix. It’s filled with questions from the beginning. The audience asks, “Who is…?” “What is…?” “But how can…?” and “Wait, what?” All the way through, answers are meted out only on a need-to-know basis, and new mysteries are continuously planted.
Create a mystery. It’s what every story needs.
Tension. Always create some tension. See: The Fugitive with Harrison Ford.
It's no fun for the reader if the writer lays in on the line too early. A slow reveal is best.