In our previous introduction on the 2nd theme of Escaping Suspense/Thriller Writing Contest, Fatal Exploration, we’ve answered 4 of 5 questions about suchlike stories.
Today let’s move to the final one!
5. How to improve your work’s market potential?
According to our data analysis, longer stories are more likely to gain better market performance and a larger reader base among novels of the same quality and genres.
Many authors have fantastic ideas with great potential to be developed in serialized novels. But most of them are completed in a short piece, without further unfolding. What a pity!
If you are curious about how to develop your story longer, here are some tips:
1. Keep the protagonist growing throughout your story.
2. Set a series of goals for the protagonist, including staged small goals and final goals. Like leveling up in a game, the protagonist continuously improves his ability to face greater challenges and achieve bigger goals. It’s one of the most effective methods.
Let’s take a basic outline as an example:
The protagonist is bound to an alien intelligence system by chance. The system enables him to master superpowers.
The protagonist learns from the system that if he wants to become stronger, he must find seven other devices to upgrade the system. For each device he finds, the system will upgrade to a new level, and he can gain new strength.
To collect the devices, the protagonist needs to go deep into extremely dangerous places while fighting with other forces. The other parties might be some organizations that are also collecting the devices.
After the seven devices are collected, the alien spacecraft in a hibernation mode is awakened to resist the coming interstellar enemies.
The outline is very brief, but it contains the two points mentioned above:
1. The protagonist keeps growing in his strength and abilities: The protagonist acquires superpowers after being bound with the system. As the plot unfolds, the protagonist continuously obtains devices to upgrade the system then obtain additional skills or strengthen his abilities.
2. The protagonist has a series of goals that grow by stages with plot development:
At first, the protagonist’s goal is minimal, and maybe he only wants to improve his situation using the system.
After the protagonist lives a better life, he realizes the system needs seven devices to complete itself, empowering him to defeat the life-threatening enemy. His goal changes as well. He then wants to collect the seven devices to upgrade the system, gain stronger powers, and prepare for bigger challenges.
He continues to become involved in challenging circumstances throughout his mission. Then, his small staged goal is to solve the difficulties encountered and obtain the devices.
In this way, the entire novel contains at least seven stories on collecting devices, each of which can be told in 50k-70k words, plus the final war. It not only enriches the content of the novel but also increases its readability and spreading potential.
Hope the cases above can bring you some inspiration. If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to leave comments in Ringdom Writing Guide or submit an application to introduce your work. We look forward to your beautiful stories!
(By Alan & Chris)
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For other writing tips, feel free to check the articles below:
Escaping Suspense/Thriller Writing Contest Theme 1: Battle Royale
Escaping Suspense/Thriller Writing Contest Theme 2: Fatal Exploration
What genres are the main focuses of Ringdom: