I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary or meaningful fashion. This is not necessarily about adding meaning so much as keeping your reader interested and turning pages. There are a few ways to keeping a reader going.
Step one is always making sure your reader cares about the reader. If the reader doesn't care, you'll never get them to page two, let alone to chapter two and beyond. I recently watched a video wherein they skipped that part. All the explosions, excitement, sinister villains jumping out of the darkness, etc. didn't affect me because the protagonist was not just uninteresting but was obnoxious to me. Even if your character starts out obnoxious/mean/selfish/etc. to give them room to grow, I still need something to care about. You could have them save the cat (do something kind) or, better yet, start with a personal connection with someone (someone or something they care about) or a great personal loss (think how Disney often kills off one parent or another or simply takes the child away from them). One way or another, always make the reader care, so what happens to them matters to the reader.
Once you've got them started, many authors suggest throwing in a question or cliffhanger at or toward the end of the chapter, so they have a reason to feel compelled to move onto the next chapter. Obviously, if you're writing a romance or literary novel, you're not going to end every chapter with the damsel in distress or someone hanging literally from a cliff, though an action yarn often will. Regardless, there needs to be some compelling reason to move forward. Think of Harry Potter or a murder mystery, wherein the narrative asks new questions every chapter before previous questions get their answers. With a romance, it's often a piece of the overall will-they-won't-they question. Find a way to make the protagonist, and, therefore, the reader want to know what happens next.
If all else fails, as in if you can't decide how to advance the plot next, remember Chandler's Law: "When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand." This can be literal or figurative. If your hero gets stuck in a corner, throw in a complication, a bit of action, a disturbing piece of news, a new question that redirects the plot and gets it moving again. This, too, can result in a cliffhanger.
The key to a compelling story is to keep the reader turning pages. Mostly, this involves giving the reader a reason to do so. Look at the beginning of your story. Have you given the reader a reason to care about your character(s)? Look at the ends of the chapters. Is there a reason for your reader to keep turning pages?
