The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle has almost 55,000 reviews on Amazon. Over 80,000 on Goodreads. It’s probably sold somewhere around ten to twenty million copies.
It was Riddle’s debut novel. So the book didn’t get that readership because Riddle already had an audience. No, he had to deliver the goods to first-time readers.
And a core part of delivering the goods is triggering the two systems. Riddle starts before you even get to chapter one.
Let’s see exactly what he’s doing so you can use it in your writing. And grab the attention of your readers.
As you read this front matter, ask yourself: What questions is the author naming—and which ones is he deliberately not answering?
Front Matter
THE GREATEST MYSTERY OF ALL TIME…
THE HISTORY OF HUMAN ORIGINS…
WILL BE REVEALED.
70,000 years ago, the human race almost went extinct.
We survived, but no one knows how.
Until now.
The countdown to the next stage of human evolution is about to begin, and humanity might not survive this time.
* * *
The Immari are good at keeping secrets. For 2,000 years, they’ve hidden the truth about human evolution. They’ve also searched for an ancient enemy – a threat that could wipe out the human race. Now the search is over.
Off the coast of Antarctica, a research vessel discovers a mysterious structure buried deep in an iceberg. It has been there for thousands of years, and something is guarding it. As the Immari rush to execute their plan, a brilliant geneticist makes a discovery that could change everything.
Dr. Kate Warner moved to Jakarta, Indonesia to escape her past. She hasn’t recovered from what happened to her, but she has made an incredible breakthrough: a cure for autism. Or so she thinks. What she has found is far more dangerous – for her and for the entire human race. Her work could be the key to the next stage of human evolution. In the hands of the Immari, it would mean the end of humanity as we know it.
Agent David Vale has spent ten years trying to stop the Immari. Now he’s out of time. His informant is dead. His organization has been infiltrated. His enemy is hunting him. But when David receives a coded message related to the Immari attack, he risks everything to save the one person that can help him solve it: Dr. Kate Warner.
Together, Kate and David must race to unravel a global conspiracy and learn the truth about the Atlantis Gene… and human origins. Their journey takes them to the far corners of the globe and into the secrets of their pasts. The Immari are close on their heels and will stop at nothing to obtain Kate’s research and force the next stage of human evolution – even if it means killing 99.9% of the world’s population. David and Kate can stop them… if they can trust each other. And stay alive.
Trigger Stacking
Look at how he starts. “THE GREATEST MYSTERY OF ALL TIME…THE HISTORY OF HUMAN ORIGINS…WILL BE REVEALED.”
He named the mystery—the history of human origins. And we immediately think: what is the history of human origins?
What can we learn from this?
One big learning is that just naming a mystery or secret, but not giving the answer, triggers our curiosity.
What else can we learn?
Look at the twist he adds to this mystery: “70,000 years ago, the human race almost went extinct. We survived, but no one knows how. Until now.”
We’re thinking: We did? What happened? How did we survive?
Add a surprising twist and that piques our curiosity even more.
Riddle triggers more questions twenty words later: “The Immari are good at keeping secrets. For 2,000 years, they’ve hidden the truth about human evolution. They’ve also searched for an ancient enemy – a threat that could wipe out the human race. Now the search is over.”
We’re now thinking: What’s the threat? Who is the enemy? Who are the Immari?
Riddle is stacking mystery after mystery. Or, in our terms, he’s stacking cognitive trigger after cognitive trigger.
But he’s not done. Look at the questions he triggers in the next three paragraphs.
- What’s the mysterious structure found in the ice?
- What is guarding it?
- What did the geneticist discover?
- What’s the secret organization dedicated to stopping the Immari?
- Why are the Immari so bent on our “evolution”?
What is that—eleven questions he’s triggered?
But it’s not just cognitive questions. We know that 99.9% of the world’s population is about to be wiped out. So he’s triggered the survive and thrive system as well.
And this is just in the front matter.
Now let’s look at his prologue. As you read the opening scene, notice two things:
- What new question is introduced?
- How long does the author delay before answering it?
This time I will insert my comments as we go.
Prologue
Research Vessel Icefall
Atlantic Ocean
88 Miles off the Coast of Antarctica
Karl Selig steadied himself on the ship’s rail and peered through the binoculars at the massive iceberg. Another piece of ice crumbled and fell, revealing more of the long black object. It looked almost like… a submarine. But it couldn’t be.
“Hey Steve, come check this out.”
Steve Cooper, Karl’s grad-school friend, tied off a buoy and joined Karl on the other side of the boat. He took the binoculars, scanned quickly, then stopped. “Whoa. What is it? A sub?”
“Maybe—”
“What’s under it?”
Karl grabbed the binoculars. “Under it…” He panned to the area under the sub. There was something else. The sub, if it was a sub, was sticking out of another metallic object, this one gray and much larger. Unlike the sub, the gray object didn’t reflect light; it looked more like heat waves, the kind that shimmer just over the horizon of a warm highway or a long stretch of desert. It wasn’t warm, though, or at least it wasn’t melting the ice around it. Just above the structure, Karl caught a glimpse of some writing on the sub: U-977 and Kriegsmarine. A Nazi sub. Sticking out of… a structure of some sort.
Karl dropped the binoculars to his side. “Wake Naomi up and prepare to dock the boat. We’re going to check it out.”
A Mystery—Then a Twist That Forces a New Question
Here’s the trigger: “revealing more of the long black object. It looked almost like… a submarine. But it couldn’t be.”
Notice he presents the situation that raises the question. And even asks it in a roundabout way “But it couldn’t be.”
This triggers us to think—yeah, what is it?
145 words later, we get the answer. It’s not just a sub. It’s a Nazi sub.
So the delay keeps our cognitive interest triggered. Then the reveal, because it’s so unexpected, triggers another question: what’s a Nazi sub doing down here?
Now, Riddle didn’t state that question. But he could have. He would have been just fine giving it to us straight. If you’re ever worried about whether the reader is getting it, just state the question you want them to wonder about. You can always take it out later if you want to.
Let’s continue.
Prologue, continued 1
Steve rushed below deck, and Karl heard him rousing Naomi from one of the small boat’s two cabins. Karl’s corporate sponsor had insisted he take Naomi along. Karl had nodded in the meeting and hoped she wouldn’t get in the way. He had not been disappointed. When they had put to sea five weeks ago in Cape Town, South Africa, Naomi had brought aboard two changes of clothes, three romance novels, and enough vodka to kill a Russian army. They had barely seen her since. It must be so boring for her out here, Karl thought. For him, it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
Karl raised the binoculars and looked again at the massive piece of ice that had broken off from Antarctica nearly a month ago. Almost ninety percent of the iceberg was underwater, but the surface area still covered forty-seven square miles—one and a half times the size of Manhattan.
Karl’s doctoral thesis focused on how newly calved icebergs affected global sea currents as they dissolved. Over the last four weeks, he and Steve had deployed high-tech buoys around the iceberg that measured sea temp and salt-water/fresh-water balance as well as took periodic sonar readings of the iceberg’s changing shape. The goal was to learn more about how icebergs disintegrated after leaving Antarctica. Antarctica held ninety percent of the world’s ice, and when it melted in the next few centuries, it would dramatically change the world. He hoped his research would shed light on exactly how.
Karl had called Steve the minute he found out he was funded. “You’ve got to come with me—No, trust me.” Steve had reluctantly agreed, and to Karl’s delight, his old friend had come alive on the expedition as they took readings by day and discussed the preliminary findings each night. Before the voyage, Steve’s academic career had been as listless as the iceberg they were following, as he floated from one thesis topic to another. Karl and their other friends had wondered if he would drop out of the doctoral program altogether.
The research readings had been intriguing, and now they had found something else, something remarkable. There would be headlines. But what would they say? “Nazi Sub Found in Antarctica”? It wasn’t inconceivable.
Delay
Notice how the story briefly shifts away from the mystery—without letting you forget it.
While our curiosity is triggered, Riddle slips in a little background on the character. 375 words of it.
Then he brings it right back to the sub, refreshing the trigger with “But what would they say? “Nazi Sub Found in Antarctica”? It wasn’t inconceivable.”
In this next section, notice what type of trigger he mixes in—is it a threat, hardship, or opportunity?
Prologue, continued 2
Karl knew the Nazis had been obsessed with Antarctica. They’d sent expeditions there in 1938 and 1939 and even claimed part of the continent as a new German province—Neuschwabenland. Several Nazi subs were never recovered during World War II and were not known to have been sunk. The conspiracy theorists claimed that a Nazi sub left Germany just before the fall of the Third Reich, carrying away the highest ranking Nazis and the entire treasury, including priceless artifacts that had been looted and top-secret technology.
At the back of Karl’s mind, a new thought emerged: reward money. If there was Nazi treasure on the sub, it would be worth a huge amount of money. He would never have to worry about research funding again.
A Second Engine Kicks In
Notice how he presents information that promises that maybe there’s top-secret tech on board. Or maybe treasure. What an exciting thing if he were to find that on board.
Riddle’s triggering the survive and thrive system with opportunity.
Let’s continue. Notice what type of trigger he mixes in with this one.
Prologue, continued 3
The more immediate challenge was docking the boat to the iceberg. The seas were rough, and it took them three passes, but they finally managed to tie off a few miles from the sub and the strange structure under it.
Karl and Steve bundled up and donned their climbing gear. Karl gave Naomi some basic instructions, the long and short of which were “don’t touch anything,” and then he and Steve lowered themselves to the ice shelf below the boat and set off.
For the next forty-five minutes, neither man said anything as they trudged across the barren ice mountain. The ice was rougher toward the interior, and their pace slowed; Steve’s more than Karl’s.
“We need to pick it up, Steve.”
Steve made an effort to catch up. “Sorry. A month on the boat has got me out of shape.”
Karl glanced up at the sun. When it set, the temperature would plummet and they would likely freeze to death. The days were long here. The sun rose at 2:30 A.M. and set after 10 P.M., but they only had a few more hours. Karl picked up his pace a little more.
Threat With a Clock
Did you see what Riddle did?
He simply explained the danger. That’s it. And now we’re wondering if they will be delayed and freeze to death.
We don’t know that they will find secret Nazi tech or treasure. We don’t know if they’ll freeze to death.
But we do know the possibilities, and that allows us to hope and fear.
Let’s see what he does in this next section.
Prologue, continued 4
Behind him, he heard Steve shuffling his snow-shoes as fast as he could, trying desperately to catch up. Strange sounds echoed up from the ice: first a low drone, then a rapid hammering, like a thousand woodpeckers assaulting the ice. Karl stopped and listened. He turned to Steve and their eyes met just as a spider web of tiny cracks shot out across the ice below Steve’s feet. Steve looked down in horror, and then ran as hard as he could toward Karl and the untouched ice.
For Karl, the scene was surreal, unfolding almost in slow motion. He felt himself run toward his friend and throw a rope from his belt. Steve caught the rope a split second before a loud crack filled the air and the ice below him collapsed, forming a giant chasm.
The rope instantly pulled tight, jerking Karl off his feet and slamming him belly first into the ice. He was going to follow Steve into the ice canyon. Karl scrambled to get his feet under him, but the tug of the rope was too strong. He relaxed his hands, and the rope slid through them, slowing his forward motion. He planted his feet in front of him, and the crampons beneath his boots bit into the ice, sending shards of ice at his face as he came to a halt. He squeezed the rope, and it pulled tight against the ledge, making a strange vibrating sound almost like a low violin.
“Steve! Hang on! I’m going to pull you up—”
A Different Threat Than We Expected
We’re worrying about freezing to death, and Riddle transports us almost immediately to a situation of a different kind of danger.
Surprise resets attention by breaking our prediction.
Notice it also stacks a new threat on top of the previous one.
Let’s continue. Is he going to stack another trigger? Is he going to surprise us?
Prologue, continued 5
“Don’t!” Steve yelled.
“What? Are you crazy—”
“There’s something down here. Lower me, slowly.”
Karl thought for a moment. “What is it?”
“Looks like a tunnel or a cave. It’s got gray metal in it. It’s blurry.”
“Okay, hold on. I’m going to let some slack out.” Karl let about ten feet of rope out, and when he heard nothing from Steve, another ten feet.
“Stop,” Steve called.
Karl felt the rope tugging. Was Steve swinging? The rope went slack.
“I’m in,” Steve said.
“What is it?”
“Not sure.” Steve’s voice was muffled now.
Surprise Piques Curiosity
Did you notice Riddle adding in a surprise again?
Just like us thinking about freezing and then surprising us with cracks, Riddle has us thinking about being lost down some chasm, and hits us with an immediate surprise—no don’t worry, lower me down.
We want to know: what did he find?
And he has Karl ask that question twice, guiding our curiosity system.
How many questions do you have right now about the situation?
Let’s see where Riddle’s ride takes us next.
Prologue, continued 6
Karl crawled to the edge of the ice and looked over.
Steve stuck his head out of the mouth of the cave. “I think it’s some kind of cathedral. It’s massive. There’s writing on the walls. Symbols—like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’m going to check it out.”
“Steve, don’t—”
Steve disappeared again.
Another Surprise: Stranger Than the Nazi Sub
Were we expecting symbols like nothing we’ve ever seen? No.
Riddle’s done it again.
Prologue, continued 7
A few minutes passed. Was there another slight vibration? Karl listened closely. He couldn’t hear it, but he could feel it. The ice was pulsing faster now. He stood up and took a step away from the edge. The ice behind him cracked, and then there were cracks everywhere—and spreading quickly. He ran full speed toward the widening fissure. He jumped—and almost made it to the other side but came up short. His hands caught on the ice ledge, and he dangled there for a long second. The vibrations in the ice grew more violent with each passing second. Karl watched the ice around him crumble and fall, and then the shard that held him broke free, and he was plummeting down into the abyss.
On the boat, Naomi watched the sun set over the iceberg. She picked up the satellite phone and dialed the number the man had given her.
“You said to call if we found anything interesting.”
“Don’t say anything. Hold the line. We’ll have your location within two minutes. We’ll come to you.”
She set the phone on the counter, walked back to the stove, and continued stirring the pot of beans.
The man on the other end of the satellite phone looked up when the GPS coordinates flashed on his screen. He copied the location and searched the satellite surveillance database for live feeds. One result.
He opened the stream and panned the view to the center of the iceberg, where the dark spots were. He zoomed in several times, and when the image came into focus, he dropped his coffee to the floor, bolted out of his office, and ran down the hall to the director’s office. He barged in, interrupting a gray-haired man who was standing and speaking with both hands held up.
“We’ve found it.”
Whammo: New Viewpoint, New Stakes
Oh, man. What’s going to happen to Karl?
But Riddle’s not done with us. He hits us with a major surprise right after that. We have a spy on the boat. Someone looking for this very thing.
Let’s step back and see what Riddle is doing that works so well.
First, in the front matter he stacks triggers, triggering a question, then another, then another without resolving the first.
He’s including both cognitive and emotional triggers.
And he’s using surprise—things we don’t expect—to increase interest.
He didn’t have to do anything fancy. Some of the triggers he simply named. Others he let us infer.
Trigger Frequency: How Often Is “Often”?
The prologue is 1,635 words long. Riddle gives us nine big triggers. The average novel these days has 250 to 350 words per page. So that’s about two triggers per page.
The Patterson sample we looked at from I, Alex Cross was 686 words long. It has probably seven triggers. That’s almost three per page.
You don’t have to pack them in that frequently. You might have one per page. Or one every two pages. Or three. You might pack them in at the beginning, let off the gas and space them out, then hit the reader with a bunch during another later section.
You can stack. You can pack. You can mix. You can surprise.
There’s no one right way to do this.
The lesson is not to try to copy Riddle exactly. The lesson is not to use this as some formula.
The lesson is to see how others trigger. And then use some form of that in your own writing.
And you don’t have to do anything fancy to do it. You simply need to tell us the questions and possibilities and delay the answers a bit so we can wonder or worry.
Trigger, build, deliver. This is the key to keeping readers turning pages.
How To Apply These Techniques Right Now
If you’re a new writer, set all this theory aside and just write your chapter or scene. You’ve got more than enough to think about when you’re simply trying to get the words on the page.
However, once you finish your draft of the scene, go back and ask these questions.
First, are you transporting the reader to a situation that triggers curiosity or hopes and fears? Is it a situation that triggers anticipation for what’s coming? If not, you need to find a new angle or change the situation.
Second, are you clearly guiding the reader in what they should be curious about? Are you triggering the curiosity system? If not, add in simple statements of the questions you want them to ask. You can use dialogue or thoughts.
Third, are you clearly guiding the reader what they should hope for or fear? Are you triggering the survive and thrive system? If not, explain the positive or negative possibilities. If the character is experiencing hardship, explain the hardship. You can use dialogue, thoughts, description, or even exposition.
Now read the chapter or scene again. You’ll feel the difference it makes.
Then go read another chapter in a story you love, looking for the triggers so you can see more examples of how it’s done.
Part of Page-Turning Plots: How to Craft Stories Readers Can’t Stop Reading.
