Add Some Torque to Your Fiction
GiveYour Stories Power by Saving the Best for Last.
Use "torque" to twist your stories at the last minute and keep your readers on the edge of their seats.
In reading this year's collection of the Best American Short Stories (edited by Stephen King), a common theme immediately emerges. The stories are in a variety of different styles and on vastly different subjects, but they remain memorable because of their torque.
What is Torque?
Torque in writing is a final, powerful twist in the story that happens not only at the end of the story, but ideally at the end of most paragraphs. It leaves your readers shaken and wanting more, and learning how to use it will add power to your plotlines.
Weight Paragraphs Heavily Toward the End
This doesn't mean saving the most lyrical sentences for the end of each paragraph. By doing this, paragraphs will rapidly start sounding the same and get boring. Instead, think about the most crucial revelation or piece of information needed in one paragraph.
Then write the paragraph, saving that piece of information for last. The sentence should be strong enough to act as a kind of anchor with enough weight and movement to carry the reader into the next paragraph.
Apply a Twist in Careful Doses
It's not enough to leave the most important information for the last: make sure to also continually surprise readers. There is a fine line between surprising twists and sensationalism, so don't overdo it. Nothing holds a reader more than when a story leads him/her in one direction and then does the unexpected.
Keep paragraphs fresh by shaking them up, and keeping surprises, no matter how small, at the ends of larger paragraphs. If a character is timid, make him do something spontaneous; if a character is already wild, have him do something unusually conservative.
Zoom Out and Add Torque to the Whole Story
Stories often capture the everyday, but the best ones don't stop there -- they go for what is unusual about the everyday. In short, people read stories to be excited and enthralled by their contents, not to hear an account of their daily lives.
Stories should build towards a conclusion that makes sense, but in the last few sentences, add torque to the story by revealing one final surprise. It will keep the story buzzing in the reader's head long after it's over.
Always leave the Reader Wanting More
Short stories in particular benefit from having torque because they pack such a wallop in such a short distance. While a novel can end in a place that feels like a worthy conclusion, short stories often end at the very beginning of something new. So it's ok to leave a few loose ends flapping around. In fact, it will be more exciting, intriguing, and lasting if there is a dénouement that's a little mysterious or reveals one final, shocking secret.
Add Punch to Stories By:
• Weighting your paragraphs toward the end
• Using twists and surprises
• Have a larger surprise at the end
• Leave some mysteries in the denouement
