Make me care
A story needs two things: An interesting character, and a serious problem.
“Interesting” and “serious” are where it gets more complicated.
Here is an article on how to make your reader care about your characters (by giving them a reason to care before the action explodes on the page). If they don’t care, they won’t read on.
Some other day I’ll talk about how to make readers care FAST – before you lose them. I reckon you’re lucky if you get two hundred words.
Felicity Banks 
stace8383 said,
September 25, 2011 at 7:38 am
I gave you a Versatile Blogger award! See here for details:
Louise Curtis said,
September 25, 2011 at 11:59 am
Thank you Stace! I shall do my versatile (?) duty for tomorrow’s entry.