(Or, how marketers and nonfiction authors can use the curiosity gap to hook readers and draw them into your world.)
I recently critiqued the first twenty-ish pages of a new writer’s thriller. The character intrigued me. The setup was solid. The premise was compelling.
But in the first four chapters, I noticed a serious problem.
Every chapter ended in resolution: a problem solved, a question answered, an issue wrapped up neatly.
And that, my friend, is the death knell of a thriller.
My favorite reviews are the ones where readers say they stayed up way too late finishing my book. One even missed her bus stop and was late to work because she was so deep in the story. (Sorry!)
That’s what you want.
So—how do you make a story unputdownable?
At ThrillerFest last year, Karen Dionne (author of The Marsh King’s Daughter) gave a fantastic presentation on keeping readers glued to the page. Her advice? It’s all about curiosity.
Our brains are wired to solve puzzles. That’s why mystery is such a gripping genre. But here’s the thing: once a question is answered, your brain relaxes.
It moves on, looking for the next problem to solve.
Dionne’s trick is to never answer all the questions at once.
She said that when you do give your audience a payoff, you should immediately introduce another open loop—or two.
This is especially critical at chapter breaks, those natural exit points where readers pause and ask: “Should I go to bed now?”
The best thriller authors make that decision agonizing. They end chapters on cliffhangers, revelations, or unsettling questions—anything to keep that curiosity itch alive.
One author who takes this a step even farther is K.B. Wagers. Instead of mapping chapter breaks to scene breaks in their Indranan War series, Wagers ends each chapter at the most dramatic point mid-scene, then picks the scene up at the beginning of the next chapter. Scenes end mid-chapter, where you feel like you should keep reading.
By doing that, Wagers ensures you never get a real resolution—not until the end of the book.
Actually, not until the end of the series. It’s truly devilish.
Curiosity is what keeps the reader turning pages; resolution is what allows the reader to wander away.
That was the problem with my student’s introductory chapters. Every time he closed a chapter with resolution, he gave the reader an easy out. There was nothing hanging in their mind, nothing to chew on, nothing pulling them back.
What does this all have to do with storytelling in business?
In marketing, this technique has a name: the curiosity gap.
The curiosity gap is the space between what your audience knows and what they want to know. When you hint at something juicy—a surprising insight, a valuable tip, an unexpected twist—you create psychological tension.
People will click, read, scroll, or swipe just to resolve that tension.
You’ve seen this in action in email subject lines and Instagram hooks:
- “I thought this idea would flop—here’s what actually happened”
- “The advice I ignored (and why I regret it)”
- “Everyone says to do this—but I never have”
- “A 5-minute shift that changed how I sell”
- “This question changed how I think about my business”
These aren’t just clickbait. They’re story hooks. They open a loop, and until it closes, we’re hooked.
You don’t have to be writing thrillers or marketing emails to use the curiosity gap.
You can use it in any story you tell.
Any time you want to write a story that connects with your audience, ask yourself:
- Am I giving everything away too soon?
- Can I withhold just a little—a twist, a consequence, a key insight—to keep the reader wondering?
- What question does this paragraph (or slide, or sentence) raise?
Then—once you’ve answered that question—open another one.
One last thing before I let you go.
There’s one caveat to using the curiosity gap:
You have to pay it off.
If you tease without delivering, your audience won’t trust you. They’ll feel manipulated. They’ll stop engaging.
It’s a balance: hook your audience, then reward their attention with something satisfying—insight, resolution, surprise, truth. And then keep the dance going.
Because yes, it’s a trick.
But it’s also a promise.
A promise that if they follow your breadcrumbs, there’s something worthwhile at the end.
Want more?
In a few weeks, I’m teaching a webinar for Indie Author Training called Unputdownable: Captivate Nonfiction Readers with Fiction Storytelling Techniques.
We’re live August 26th at 9am Pacific, and you can register for the webinar here.
If you catch this blog post after the fact, no worries. The replay will be available at that link for free.