What does it take to keep a reader engaged to your story?

[LinXueLian]

People overlook the importance a strong voice a lot. Pacing, plot and character are important for a quality story, but people will forgive a lot of garbage in something that's just plain entertaining to read. Douglas Adams isn't remembered because of his playfully chaotic plots, he's remembered because he used lines like "The ships hung in the sky much in the same way that bricks don't". Similarly, the first half or so of discworld would read like generic fantasy fluff if Pratchett hadn't been such a master of wordplay. And many a Deep Important Story with Awesome Characters and a Genius Plot has died in obscurity because the actual sentence-to-sentence writing was just boring.

Argh, yes, a strong voice works. I've clicked away from works with potentially good premises because the delivery was just so boring. Even the most interesting characters and well-planned plots would be hard to sit through if they were delivered without wit and play, really.

I've often found those with conversational tones to be a little more entertaining and easier to stick through. Some people are so good at those, they even make expositions a joy to read.

You're definitely right that people overlook voice quite a bit. I've leafed through and dropped countless of stories and translations less than a chapter in - it's pretty surprising how many people don't remember to have this bit down. Or they think they do, but.... yeah. It's either a hit or miss!