Yesterday I was reading a profile in the New Yorker about Ian McEwan.
He's the author of Atonement, among other works, and one of the key features of the profile was his discussion of narrative suspense and how to create it. Narrative suspense is the thing that makes you turn pages, and while it may be gimmicky—see Brown, Dan—it does work. In some ways, it’s the most effective way to create an interesting story.
And (most) people don’t dig on boring stories. “McEwan said that one of his goals was to ‘incite a naked hunger in readers.’ He discussed is technique reluctantly, as if he were a chemist guarding a newly filed patent. ‘Narrative tension is primarily about withholding information.’ McEwan is a connoisseur of dread, performing the literary equivalent of turning on the tub faucet and leaving the room; the flood is foreseeable, but it still shocks when the water rushes over the edge…at moments of peak intensity, McEwan slows time down—a form of torture that readers enjoy despite themselves.”
If authors can use narrative suspense to make pages turn, we can use it to get people to do things on the web. Now, I know it’s a bit salesy to think about “getting people to do things”, but it can’t always be sunshine and roses. We’re in the business of persuasion, and most people that see a site aren’t persuaded to do anything. And they leave in search of something cooler.
So when you’re thinking about a form, a series of forms or a goal funnel (anything that someone has to complete to get a result), instead of scheming out a process that someone “must complete”, build a narrative. Now, I'm not sure about withholding important information, but surprise people with little gifts along the way that help complete the story.
Another gem from the profile of McEwan: "On our walk, McEwan twice cited Henry James's dictum that the only obligation of a novel 'is that it be interesting.' Later, McEwan declared that he finds 'most novels incredibly boring. It's amazing how the form endures. Not being boring is quite a challenge.'"
Hm. I feel like I find myself saying that a lot. Your first job in this industry, no matter what, is to make things that are interesting. Nothing groundbreaking, I know, but perhaps a little reminder to all of us in the web world, where we tend to get caught up in a lot of documentation and process.
Dan Zalewski, "The Background Hum" New Yorker, February 23, 2009, p. 48