Hello!
All right, so I don't know about you, but I personally love it when I get so engulfed in a scene that I find myself reading faster and faster and not wanting to stop! Of course, then I have to go do dishes and the whole effect is lost, but you get the point.
Anyways, my questions for y'all are; what makes a scene that does this to you? How do you write scenes like this?

Bethany Faith

*laughs* Hmm, I've never thought of skimming. That sounds like a good idea.

I suppose one way is by making a scene that would make the reader go WHAT?!?!?! Wait?! What happens! And making stuff that if something goes wrong, everyone dies. If you keep someone hanging, they won't leave unless they really have to. Who stops reading when lets say...

The main character of a book must get to the other side of this river of lava. There is a very narrow bridge that is only as wide as his feet. There are lava monsters jumping up and trying to eat him from below, it is raining hail and the bridge is sleek and he keeps getting hit with ice balls. He almost falls off multiple times, not just because the bridge is narrow, not because the bridge is sleek, not because if he falls he knows he will melt, not because a monster could jump out at him any second, not just because... HE IS BLIND!
But also because there are goblins shooting arrows at him!
And he has two minutes to cross before someone kills the damsel in distress!

You can not put that down!

*groans* Me too. But I find skimming is not worth it, 'cause I always have to go back to get things properly.

*on hands and knees begs* Don't do it, Beth!!

I don't skim. Ever. So that is foreign to me. I know stories build off of themselves, so skipping stuff could get you in trouble.

I think fast paced wording can help, but honestly, I'm not sure what makes the scene so gripping. Killing people off isn't necessarily a good thing though. I think Namor is correct that it can be effective, but needless death in a book (like, I don't know what to do with this character anymore, so I'm going to kill him) turns me off of a book. I mean, I'll still read, but the spell has been broken. He needs to die for a purpose.

So are you talking about a riveting scene, Bethy, or specifically a scene that makes you read faster? Because riveting reading happens to me, but I've never gotten to the point where my eyes are trying to skip ahead...

Either or. To me, if a scene is riveting, I'm reading it quickly. Unless it's a death scene... * is incoherent today *

Though, I didn't start this thread for a specific scene; I was half curious, half in a thread-making mood. I tend to write scenes with a goal to make my reader rush through the scene, especially battle scenes or kidnapping scenes, things of that nature, and I wanted to see what y'all's opinion was on what made a scene that did that.

Hmmm... I guess I have little to offer then, other than keeping dialogue fast paced. I'm a fast, coherent reader. So maybe that is my problem...

Well yes, I don't mean to say that people should kill people off willy-nilly! It just makes the reader more emotional.

@Namor: I loved that scene - now you need to write a book about it and come up with a great name for the lava monsters

eru

Ha! Good idea; I'll call it, ACH!. How 'bout that?

Tip: Don't use a lot of blundering details. Do fast, cut-to-the-action scenes.

*Is scared*
What did I do, Liberty!

@Elly: That's very true. They want to know what happens as soon as possible - so you let them know as soon as possible. Cut to the chase

eru

I love it when this happens. My Mother once read this book outloud to us and it got so exciting we wouldn't let her stop, so it got to like 2am and she was still reading it to us! Poor Mother! But it was an amazing book!

You mean you ran your poor mother ragged? How cruel!

Sorry!



I've gone 'till three reading a really good book!

I was up late a few days back reading an excellent novel. I started at like five PM and didn't put it up until I'd finished the book at midnight Sometimes when you have a story that is so begging to be finished you don't even need action scenes to keep you reading - you just want to see what happens next

eru

Once I was reading a book about a racehorse and during one of the races, my legs started sweating.

O.o