A good story, and when I say story I mean narrative, manages to capture the readers' attention in such a way that they cannot release what they are reading until they finish. All writers want to write such a story because a story that grabs those who read it is a story with at least a modicum of respectable literary quality.

Now, how to achieve this? How to ensure that the reader does not get bored? I’m going to tell you briefly in this story, and I’m going to give you examples, so pay close attention.

Tip no. 1 Create interesting characters

The characters, and especially the protagonists, must be attractive to the reader, complex enough to be interesting, and simple enough to be close. Perhaps in another post I will talk a little more about what an interesting character is and how to create it, but here I am going to summarize some of its characteristics. An interesting character:

• Has goals, things he/she wants to have or achieve. These can be very complex or very simple, such as getting the bus in time. They can also be material or more abstract and spiritual.

• Has strengths and weaknesses because no human being is completely good or bad.

• Has internal and external conflicts, that is, obstacles in the realization of their wishes.

Tip no. 2 Create unexpected plot twists.

There is nothing more appealing than unexpected twists. These are the actions that neither the reader nor the characters expect to happen. Sometimes it’s the unexpected twists and turns that create the main plot conflict. In any case, this is an extremely important element that always adds complexity to the story.

For example, an unexpected twist may be when Raskolnikov, the famous character from Dostoevsky's masterpiece Crime and Punishment, sets out to assassinate the elderly Aliona Ivanova and finds her sister Lizaveta on the scene. This means that he is forced to kill her as well so as not to be blamed later for his crime. This action makes the young murderer feel much more guilty and desperate.

Tip no. 3 Encourages the curiosity of readers

Mant years later as he faced the firing squad. Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

Thus begins one of my most beloved books, One Hundred Years of Solitude, written by the Literature Novel Prize, Gabriel García Márquez. When reading those words, instantly the reader starts to ask a lot of questions. Who is this Aureliano Buendía? Why is he facing the firing squad? And the most important of all, does he finally get to be executed?

This is one of the best ways to generate curiosity in readers, telling them the future without giving all the details. This method is very old in the history of literature. In the Greco-Roman world, the oracles of the gods fulfilled the function of incompletely portraying the future so that spectators would be much more fascinated with the story.

Another way to generate curiosity is by posing an unsolved mystery. All detective literature feeds on this method, but many other types of novels also use this resource. For example, in all the books of the well-known Harry Potter saga mysteries are raised at the beginning and solved at the end of each volume.

I hope these tips have been useful to you and you have enjoyed reading them. If so, consider following me to read more stories like these and leave me your ideas in the comments.