Characters

Characters need to be put at risk and they need to risk things to keep the reader involved. I've said before that you have to be cruel to your characters, make bad things happen to them, which will delight your reader or at least fascinate them (who can't help looking at a train wreck?). But I would add that these bad things often come out of the characters' acts. The characters' mistakes are part of what keep us involved in her story.