What Barb From ‘Stranger Things’ Can Teach You About Writing

Why empty promises piss off your readers

How readers react when you introduce them to yet another secondary character with a long-ass backstory. // Photo by Christian Erfurt on Unsplash

Sometimes, when you’re working on a novel, you lose your way and don’t quite know why.

(By “sometimes,” I mean consistently.)

This is true whether you’re trying to make sense of a messy first draft or trying to figure out the soggy middle of a…