That's right, I want you to frustrate your readers.

Not in a bad way. Not in your writing technique, or not delivering what you promise, etc.

You should frustrate them by making them care about something, and then making them wait for it. Tease them with it. This deals with conflict. Not just big epic conflict, but small things too.

1. Delaying the Resolution

As people, when we get into a situation of conflict, our desire is to resolve it quickly. To handle all misinterpretations, get everything straight. If something goes wrong, we want to get to it.

As authors, that means that as soon as conflict crops up, we want to take care of it. But, if you delay that resolution, you nurture it, you make it grow.

Your readers are the same way, they want to see it resolved. And when it isn't, they'll want to stick around just to see it resolved. This is the type of thing that when the characters do something wrong, the reader says "No! No don't do that! You idiot!"

Thing is, this is a very difficult thing to do. Because you need a reason why it isn't resolved immediately. It makes sense with Star Wars; Luke just can't go after the Death Star immediately. But if Character A says something that hurts Character B's feelings, and this is a source of conflict, you need a reason WHY CHaracter B does not just tell Character A that their feelings are hurt. You need a reason why Character A just doesn't apologize to Character B. You need a reason why Character A and B do not profess their love for one another, despite their obvious feelings. So that later, in an important moment these things come out.

And your answer as to "Why don't they handle it now" has to make sense, both in terms of the character, and the plot. Plot can cause this delay. After saying something stupid, character A gets a phone call from work and he has to leave. Or character B, upset, runs out and just avoids character A - when Character A comes to resolve things, character B finds a way to keep the emotional distance, or something Else Gets In The Way.

This way your audience is sitting there going "Come on, do it! Noo!"

Now, this is hard again because you can't beat this trick too much. You have to, again, make it believable.

There's another way you can use this tool to your advantage.

2. Errors in Perception

I'm reading this romance novel, and I'm really bored with it. I'm not that intrigued by the characters. But, the author did something that, despite my disinterest in the characters, immediately made me interested in an outcome. In it, you have a female lawyer who acts cold so she doesn't get perceived as weak, but has a feminine inside she's guarding carefully. You have a male lawyer who has bad experiences with harsh women, and he wants to see tenderness or feminine emotion out of the woman lawyer. The female laywer sees the male as shallow and typically Male. They both are attracted to one another, but have clear misconceptions about one another.

One simple, tactless comment from one, and they both suddenly take its meaning and the reaction of the other wrongly.

As the reader, I'm screaming "No! Your perception is wrong! You're going in the wrong direction!"

You will see this in other fiction. A character (usually the main character) will be WRONG about some crucial information, and make a mistake, or have the conflict prolonged, or resist making an action BECAUSE their info is bad. Their perception is bad.

And the reader, wanting the main character to be right, will pay more attention because they want to see this corrected.