The secret to crafting an ADDICTIVE story 🤫

Breaking down the science behind addictive storytelling

Early in my editing career, when I worked at Penguin Random House, I picked up a novel casually for some pleasure reading. Next thing I knew, I was finishing the last page in my bed at 2 a.m.

I’d finished it in a single sitting.

Granted, I’d read several novels in bursts like that — but they were mostly manuscripts I was required to read quickly for work. This one was purely for enjoyment. I didn’t even mean to read it so quickly. It just happened.

Today I want to show you how to write like that. How to make readers addicted to turning the pages. How to make your story unputdownable.

The science behind addictive storytelling

The novel was called Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips.

If you haven’t read it, here’s the premise: a mother and her four-year-old son are trapped inside a zoo after closing time when shooters open fire. The entire story unfolds over roughly three hours. It’s raw, visceral, and uncomfortably intimate.

I physically couldn’t stop reading it.

The writing was strong, yes — but that wasn’t the crux of what made the novel so compulsively readable. Plenty of beautifully written books don’t grip you like that.

So what was Gin Phillips doing that made it impossible to look away, page after page?

It turns out I wouldn’t be able to articulate the answer until years later, when I discovered a powerful psychological principle that master storytellers know how to harness.

And once you understand it, you’ll never approach your story the same way again.