From the Hook to ‘The End’: Keeping Your Readers Reading

There is no doubt about it; when we sit down to write a sim we often put a lot of work into it. For that reason, if no other, we want the other people on our ship to actually read the thing that we’ve put so much into. At the same time, you can lead your horse to water, but you can’t make him drink short of shoving it down his throat – something that we just can’t do with our words. Officers on your ship have to want to read the stories that you are weaving together, and that means that you need to know how to write something that will hook them from the very beginning and get them onboard with wherever your bit of the storyline is taking you.
There are a number of different techniques that you can employ when you want to ensure your readers keep reading, but the 25 that are offered by guest poster Chuck Wendig on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website are both easy to understand and easy to implement. Whether you are writing a short piece to string together some other actions that are going on around your ship, or you are composing a huge narrative that shows your fellow officers a whole new side of your character, knowing how to keep your readers reading is probably one of the more important aspects of writing within UFOP: Starbase 118. No one wants to feel like they are forced to read something, but if you implement some of these tips, you will find that your crewmates won’t ever have to.