: Re: How do you earn the reader's trust? Recently, I have stumbled upon a problem. After releasing an issue, I think that I failed to earn the trust of my readers. My analysis is that they did

@Kevin153

Given that is this a serial, you may be misinterpreting the reader comments. From what you've reported, you've done exactly what you planned to. You've introduced a cliffhanger where the hero acts out of character. And you've successfully established that character to the point that people recognize that fact. More importantly, you've made them care. That's all to the good. If reactions were positive or indifferent, it would mean either that your readers had seen right through your twist immediately, or that they just didn't care.

Most people aren't going to drop you at this point --they're going to at least stick around long enough to see how you resolve this dilemma. If they find the next installment satisfying enough, you're all in the clear.

So you haven't won or lost yet. You've committed to a gamble --high risk, high reward. The next episode is where people will decided whether your plotline is a dirty cheat or an awesome twist. If you did your prep work well enough, they'll swallow the twist happily. With that said, you have to be judicious with contrived situations like this. One per story is about as much as most people can stomach before it starts feeling like a soap opera. (Although, of course, there are plenty of people who LOVE soap operas.)

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