5 Things Audiences Hate (Writing Advice)

Summary

In this video, Brandon McNulty discusses five common mistakes that can alienate audiences in writing. He emphasizes the importance of preparing readers for genre elements, maintaining consistent pacing, avoiding unnecessary recaps, ensuring villains follow through on threats, and providing resolutions even when using cliffhanger endings. McNulty uses examples to illustrate these points, helping writers create more engaging and satisfying stories. He also invites viewers to share their own frustrations with fiction in the comments and encourages them to support his channel by reading his novels.

Takeaways

• 😀 One of the best ways to win over your audience is by not upsetting them.
• ✍️ Establish the genres you will be working with early on in your story to set proper expectations.
• 🚫 Avoid inconsistent pacing, as audiences expect the story to move faster toward the end.
• 🔁 Don't include unnecessary recaps of events the audience has already seen; it disrupts the flow.
• 🥊 Avoid pulling punches in your story, as it breaks the reality and makes characters seem weak.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Make sure your villains and heroes act in a believable manner consistent with their abilities.
• 📈 Pacing should be balanced; allow for cool-down periods but maintain momentum as the story progresses.
• 🎬 Cliffhanger endings are fine, but always include a resolution to the current story.
• 📚 Combining different genres can work well, but it requires careful setup to avoid confusing the audience.
• 📉 Repeatedly filling space with previously covered events signals a need for more original content.

Q & A

What is the main topic discussed by Brandon McNulty in the video?

The main topic discussed by Brandon McNulty in the video is the common mistakes and habits that writers make which can cause audiences to lose interest in their stories.

What are 'genre elements' as mentioned in the script?

Genre elements refer to specific storytelling components that are associated with a particular genre, such as spaceships and aliens in sci-fi, or car chases and murders in thrillers.

Why is it important to prepare the audience for genre elements in a story?

It is important to prepare the audience for genre elements to set the right expectations and to avoid sudden, jarring shifts in the story that can disengage the audience.

What does 'inconsistent pacing' mean in the context of storytelling?

Inconsistent pacing refers to the uneven speed at which a story is told, which can confuse or bore the audience if not managed properly throughout the narrative.

Why should the pacing of a story typically increase as it approaches the end?

The pacing should increase towards the end of a story because audiences typically expect the narrative to build up to a climax, creating a sense of urgency and excitement.

What is the problem with unnecessary recaps of events in a story?

Unnecessary recaps of events can be problematic as they can bore the audience and disrupt the flow of the story, especially if the audience has already experienced those events.

What is the issue with 'pulling punches' in a story?

Pulling punches refers to a scenario where a character, usually a villain, fails to act on their intentions due to unrealistic or trivial reasons, which can make the character seem less believable and weaken the narrative.

Why is it essential to include a resolution in a story, even if it ends on a cliffhanger?

A resolution is essential because it provides closure to the events of the current story, satisfying the audience's need for a complete narrative arc, while a cliffhanger can be used to create anticipation for the next installment.

What does Brandon McNulty suggest as an alternative to 'pulling punches'?

Instead of pulling punches, Brandon McNulty suggests developing the hero as a clever character who can come up with solutions to counter the villain's actions, adding depth and realism to the story.

What is the 'question of the day' posed by Brandon McNulty at the end of the video?

The 'question of the day' posed by Brandon McNulty is asking viewers what aspect of a work of fiction most annoys them, inviting them to share their thoughts in the comment section.

What are the two books written by Brandon McNulty that are mentioned in the video?

The two books written by Brandon McNulty mentioned in the video are 'Bad Parts' and 'Entry Wounds'.

Outlines

00:00

😃 Engaging Your Audience: Avoiding Initial Missteps

Brandon McNulty introduces himself and his writing channel, emphasizing the importance of not alienating the audience early in the story. He highlights five common mistakes writers make that turn audiences away. The first issue discussed is the failure to prepare audiences for genre elements. He explains the importance of establishing genre expectations early, using an example of a romance story abruptly turning into a thriller without proper setup, which can confuse and frustrate readers.

05:01

⏩ The Importance of Consistent Pacing

McNulty discusses the significance of pacing in storytelling, noting that the speed at which a story is told should typically increase towards the end. He warns against stories that start fast, slow down in the middle, and then speed up at the end, as this can bore the audience. He advises balancing fast-paced moments with slower periods to maintain interest and ensure the story flows smoothly.

📜 Avoiding Unnecessary Recaps

McNulty addresses the problem of unnecessary recaps in stories, where events already witnessed by the audience are repeated in detail later on. He suggests summarizing past events briefly instead of long, drawn-out conversations that add nothing new to the story. This keeps the narrative focused on new, exciting material and prevents it from feeling padded or redundant.

🥊 The Problem with Pulling Punches

McNulty explains the issue of 'pulling punches,' where a villain fails to harm the hero due to unrealistic or silly reasons. This breaks the story's reality and weakens both the villain and the hero. He recommends allowing the hero to overcome challenges through clever solutions rather than relying on the villain's sudden incompetence.

🔚 Crafting Satisfying Cliffhangers

McNulty talks about the use of cliffhanger endings, emphasizing that they are acceptable as long as the current story's primary conflict is resolved. He cites 'The Dark Knight' as an example, which ends on a cliffhanger about Batman's future but still resolves the main plot points. This approach keeps audiences eager for more while providing a satisfying conclusion to the story at hand.

Keywords

💡Genre elements

Genre elements are specific storytelling components that are characteristic of a particular genre, such as spaceships in sci-fi or car chases in thrillers. In the video, the importance of properly introducing these elements early in the story is emphasized to avoid confusing the audience when genres are mixed.

💡Inconsistent pacing

Inconsistent pacing refers to irregular speed in storytelling, which can disrupt the flow of a narrative. The video highlights the need for a balanced pace, particularly cautioning against starting with a fast pace, slowing down significantly in the middle, and then speeding up again, as this can disengage the audience.

💡Unnecessary recaps

Unnecessary recaps involve reiterating events that the audience has already experienced, often in great detail, which can frustrate readers. The video advises against this practice, suggesting concise summaries instead, to keep the story moving forward and maintain audience interest.

💡Pulling punches

Pulling punches refers to a scenario where a character, typically a villain, fails to harm someone despite having the opportunity and intent, often due to unrealistic reasons. The video warns that this can break the story's reality and weaken both the villain and the hero, urging writers to find believable ways for characters to escape danger.

💡Cliffhanger endings

Cliffhanger endings are conclusions that leave the audience in suspense about what will happen next. The video notes that while cliffhangers are acceptable, they should be paired with a resolution to the current story, ensuring that the audience feels a sense of closure despite the open-ended conclusion.

💡Audience engagement

Audience engagement refers to the techniques used to keep the audience interested and invested in the story. The video discusses how avoiding certain pitfalls, like inconsistent pacing and unnecessary recaps, helps maintain engagement and prevents the audience from turning away from the story.

💡Story resolution

Story resolution is the act of providing a satisfying conclusion to the story's main plot points. The video emphasizes that a well-resolved story, even with a cliffhanger, gives the audience a sense of completion and satisfaction, which is crucial for maintaining their interest in future works.

💡Character development

Character development is the process of creating complex, believable characters with depth and growth throughout the story. The video implies that avoiding pulled punches and ensuring consistent pacing can contribute to better character arcs, making them more relatable and engaging for the audience.

💡Genre mixing

Genre mixing is the practice of combining elements from different genres to create a unique story. The video advises that while this can be effective, it is crucial to establish the genres early in the story to set proper audience expectations and avoid jarring shifts in tone or plot.

💡Narrative balance

Narrative balance involves maintaining a harmonious flow in the storytelling, ensuring that different elements like pacing, character development, and genre elements are well-integrated. The video stresses that achieving this balance is key to keeping the audience engaged and the story compelling from start to finish.

Highlights

The importance of not upsetting the audience from the start for a successful narrative.

Introduction of the speaker, Brandon McNulty, author of 'Bad Parts' and 'Entry Wounds'.

Discussion on avoiding common writing pitfalls that alienate readers.

The necessity of preparing audiences for genre elements to prevent narrative confusion.

The pitfalls of mixing genres without clear early establishment.

The example of a sudden genre shift from romance to thriller causing audience disconnect.

The significance of consistent pacing in storytelling and its impact on audience engagement.

Audiences' expectation for an accelerated pace towards the story's climax.

The negative effect of inconsistent pacing, such as a story that starts fast and slows down.

The importance of balancing fast and slow sections to maintain audience interest.

Critique of unnecessary recaps of events already witnessed by the audience.

The problem with drawn-out conversations that only rehash past events.

The suggestion to summarize past events instead of detailed recaps to keep the story moving.

The frustration audiences feel with 'pulling punches', where villains fail to act as expected.

The unrealistic portrayal of villains and heroes when opportunities to harm are missed.

The recommendation to develop clever solutions for characters instead of relying on luck.

The debate on cliffhanger endings and the requirement for resolution within individual stories.

The example of 'The Dark Knight' balancing a cliffhanger with a story resolution.

The call to action for writers to consider audience satisfaction and avoid common narrative mistakes.

Invitation for viewers to share their pet peeves in fiction and to engage with the channel.

Transcripts

one of the best ways to win over your

audience is by not pissing them off in

the first place today we're going to

talk about that so stick around by the

way my name is brandon mcnulty i'm the

author of bad parts also the author of

entry wounds and welcome to my writing

channel today i'm going to talk about

some horrible things horrible habits

that writers have or horrible decisions

that writers make things that cause

audiences to turn away from your stories

i have five particular things i want to

talk about today and the first thing

audiences hate is when you fail to

prepare them for genre elements now when

we're talking about genre elements we're

talking about any storytelling element

that is associated with one particular

genre so within the sci-fi genre there

are elements like spaceships aliens time

travel

cures for previously incurable diseases

things like that within the thriller

genre you have things like car chases or

murders or being hunted down by an

assassin things like that and nowadays a

lot of writers like to combine different

genres and mix them together in order to

get something fresh and original and

that can work really well but the thing

is early on you need to establish what

genres you will be working with in this

story and if you don't do that if you

for instance are mixing two or three

different genres and early on in the

story you only tell us that okay this is

going to be a romance and then early on

you you show us this wholesome romance

like a hallmark movie with this

wholesome couple going on wholesome

dates and it's just it's very easy going

and then all of a sudden in the middle

of the story they they meet at a cafe

and the couple is they're sharing coffee

together and then they're leaning in for

that first kiss and as that first kiss

is about to connect all of a sudden

there's this loud explosion and next

thing we know the guy's head the back of

his head just pops off jfk style and we

learn that there's a sniper that was

after the guy and then all of a sudden

this this romance for for half the story

this this purely just a romance has

become a thriller revenge story and it's

just not gonna click with the audience

because those thriller revenge elements

were not established early on so you

need to be careful with that number two

thing audiences hate is inconsistent

pacing when we're talking about pacing

we're talking about the speed at which a

story is told and the key word there is

told because you can tell a story that

takes place over the course of many

years you can tell that story at a fast

pace and at the same time you can tell a

story that takes place over the course

of 20 minutes at a slower pace it's all

depends on what you want to do with the

story but one thing to keep in mind is

that audiences typically expect the

story to move along faster as it goes

toward the end so

early on it's totally okay if you're

going at a slower pace because audiences

expect that okay you're going to have to

establish the characters and in the

scenario and the setting and things like

that but as you're heading toward the

end they want to see things picking up

in terms of pace in most cases now one

thing you definitely want to be aware of

if you have a story that starts fast and

then all of a sudden it grinds to a halt

in the middle and it just kind of

muddles along until the very end where

things ramp up again and then it's very

fast

that story is not going to work because

the thing is audiences aren't going to

get to that ending because they're going

to be so bored by the middle you need to

be aware that that pacing is a balancing

act you don't want to overdo it you

don't want to have things going

fast-paced 99 of the time you need those

cool down periods you need those

sections where the audience can breathe

but at the same time you don't want to

promise them something upfront something

that's fast-paced right off the bat

and then nothing happens for the rest of

the story until the very end the number

three thing audiences hate unnecessary

recaps of events they've already seen

this is something i've come across from

time to time in various books where

early on in the story an event happens

and we experience it through a

character's point of view we experience

it we get all the details

all the information that we need and we

move along with the story but for

whatever reason sometimes in the middle

of the book or toward the end of the

book we will get this extremely detailed

recap of that event we already witnessed

for whatever reason maybe maybe it'll be

like two characters having a discussion

or maybe there's an interrogation or a

confession or maybe two people meet for

the first time and it's like well how

did you get here oh let me tell you

about what happened and then they have

this this long drawn out conversation

about the event that the reader has

already experienced firsthand and i have

just a major problem with this because

first of all there's an easy fix for

this you could just basically summarize

and say that oh bob brought jill up to

speed on what happened earlier to him

and then you move along that's all you

need to do but for whatever reason some

authors feel the need to have these

drawn out conversations about these

prior events and they they have them

take place over the course of an entire

chapter sometimes even multiple chapters

and the only reason i could think of

that these are included is because the

author wants to fill up space in the

story maybe they think that the

beginning of the story is a little front

loaded and the middle or the back is a

little thin so instead of actually doing

the hard work to come up with new

material new exciting material that

pushes the story forward and keeps us in

the present instead of doing that what

they do is they they fall back on

something exciting that happened earlier

if you're doing this in your stories

chances are you need to take a step back

and ask yourself how can i develop from

within the middle of my story or how can

i develop from within the end of my

story in order to make things more

interesting and in order to create more

content to make the story satisfying the

number four thing audiences hate when

you pull punches

when we're talking about pulling punches

we're talking about a scenario in which

a character usually a villain has an

opportunity to harm someone they have

the desire to harm someone and they

fully intend to harm someone but for

some silly stupid reason they fail to do

so maybe they slip on a banana peel or

they just you know get clumsy all of a

sudden or whatever it is or the weather

breaks or anything like that and as a

result the hero gets to get off

scot-free audiences hate this because it

breaks with the reality of the story for

instance if you have a thriller and

early on you establish your villain as

this expert sniper they're just boom

boom boom 100 accuracy and then that

villain all of a sudden they encounter

the hero who's just this everyday guy

not trained in special forces or

anything like that just this everyday

person and all of a sudden the villain

is about to take out the hero but

the bullet sails wide and then the next

bullet misses and then the next one

after that misses and the hero just

luckily manages to escape that breaks

with the reality of the story and not

only that it makes the villain look

stupid and it also makes the hero look

weak because the hero just got lucky now

the way to solve this problem instead of

pulling punches instead of just having

this clumsy scenario where the sniper

just all of a sudden is no longer

accurate what you can do you can have

your hero

become a clever person or come up with

some kind of clever solution to fight

back against the villain or to dodge the

villain's attacks or whatever it might

be and the number five thing that

audiences hate cliffhanger endings with

no resolution whatsoever

let me say right up front that

cliffhanger endings are totally fine you

can end a story on a cliffhanger you can

get your audience wondering what's going

to happen in the next book in your

series that is totally fine

but you also must include a resolution

to the book you just finished because if

an audience just worked their way

through your story all the way to the

very end they deserve a resolution and

if they don't get one they're gonna be

upset

now here's the thing

a lot of the best stories out there end

on cliffhangers the dark knight for

instance ends on the cliffhanger of what

will happen to batman now that the

police are out to get him but the dark

knight also ends with a concrete

resolution batman defeats the joker he

prevents harvey dent from being turned

into this corrupt figure or at least

being perceived as this corrupt figure

so that movie has both a resolution and

a cliffhanger that's what you need to be

aiming for if you do want to go that

cliffhanger route so i hope this helps

question of the day what pisses you off

the most when you're taking in a work of

fiction

let us know in the comment section below

thank you guys for watching if you want

to support the channel please pick up a

copy of either one of my novels also be

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share this video with a friend and as

always remember to keep on writing