My roommate and I recently had a long talk about TV shows and if we planned to continue watching them. In a couple of cases, we decided we were tired of the current season and would pick it up in the next season (this only works well with reality shows). Other shows, well, we're just dropping them completely. I would like to say I'm sad, but I'm not. It was getting to the point where watching these shows was just painful.
It's an important thing for me to think about as a writer. What goes wrong with long term storylines that forces me to walk away? Worse, what goes wrong that makes me just not care anymore? It's something to seriously consider.
1. PLOT PACING
There is a delicate balance when constructing a plot. You need to be able to make the plot move in a way that keeps your audience feeling there is progress, but not move it so quickly that they feel blindsided by it. Plot needs to be established early and revisited often. Will other things be going on? Of course. But the plot always needs to be there. The stories need to weave into the plot and once the plot reaches its climax, it needs to make enough sense and have enough impact that the audience feels it was worthwhile.
2. BACK STORY IS IMPORTANT, BUT IT'S NOT THE SHOW.
I love back stories. I love flashbacks. I love it when a story has depth and range and aspects that happened years ago that still affect what is currently going on. Having said that, there are shows I stopped watching because the flashbacks became more important than the current time. If the current timeline is just a backdrop for what has happened in the past, it's not going to keep my attention . . . not unless it is very well done.
3. GOOD CHARACTERS AREN'T ENOUGH
It is vital to have good characters. It is equally vital to have a good plot. People will stick with characters they love for a while, but only for a while. If said characters are just milling around in meaningless actions and babbling one-liners at each other, people will walk away.
4. UNDERSTAND YOUR CHARACTERS AND HAVE THEM REACT IN A REALISTIC WAY.
If you're going to write something, you need to really understand who you're writing about. Characters should have depth and realness to them. You need to understand them. You need to know what really drives them, what they fear, what they will not tolerate, and who they are. It is important to always keep this information in mind when you write them. Don't base a plot point around your character doing something they would never reasonably do.
5. WHILE IT IS IMPORTANT TO GIVE YOUR AUDIENCE A SENSE OF MYSTERY AND HINT AT MORE THINGS TO COME, DO NOT KEEP WITHHOLDING THESE THINGS FOREVER.
I can't tell you the number of shows I have walked away from just because the mystery aspects of it came off as 'this is really convoluted and the writers have no idea what is going on.' While you can't just lay out the whole plot from episode/chapter one, you do need to begin to unfold it within the plot. This requires something very important. YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT THE MYSTERIES ARE. You can't just make them up as you go along. You need to know everyone's secrets and know where all the bodies are hidden. If you don't, rest assured that others will soon realize you don't.
6. DON'T KEEP REPEATING THE SAME CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
My favorite Harry Potter book is The Prisoner of Azkaban because in my mind, it is the least formulaic of Rowling's novels. Instead of Harry and co. wondering around only to find Voldemort at the end of the plot, things took a different turn. Harry found out a lot of stuff about his family and the generation before him, saved the day, and only won in the most bittersweet kind of way. While things had ties to Voldemort, it wasn't directly about him. It wasn't the usual predictable stuff.
People will get tired of your characters just repeating the same series of steps over and over again, especially if they continue to react the same way. There needs to be variation. There needs to be consideration. Most of all, there needs to be character growth.
All of this is by no means the only reasons I stopped watching shows, but they have a lot to do with it. I guess if I have to boil it down to just one thing, it's this . . . don't betray your writing. When you betray your writing . . . your plot, your characters, your idea . . . you are not only betraying yourself, you're betraying your audience. An audience will forgive a lot of things, but they will not forgive being betrayed. It's the one thing that will turn them off not just from your current project, but any other project you may have in the future.
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