What the Reader Expects

Once a storyteller hits a certain level of competency, much of her reader’s investment comes down to how well expectations are established and met. I’m not talking about genre tropes a writer uses and a reader expects. Rather, I mean those methods of storytelling that convey, build, and sustain emotional investment.

It’s been twenty-mumble years since I first decided I wanted to write novels. I sucked at it. I sucked hard. I mean, a lifetime of theater and reading had given me an internalized...