Surprise Your Readers

Shannon Dittemore is the author of the Angel Eyes trilogy. She has an overactive imagination and a passion for truth. Her lifelong journey to combine the two is responsible for a stint at Portland Bible College, performances with local theater companies, and a focus on youth and young adult ministry. For more about Shan, check out her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Happy Friday, all! I have some fun stuff to share in the coming weeks, including an author interview with one of my favorites and a contest to test your SHOWING skills. I'm very excited about both, but today, I'll be doing my best to answer a question that was posed on the blog a few weeks ago. Here the comment:

There is more than one way to interpret question number two up there: the unpredictable narrator. I'm not entirely sure whether Ana wants advice on an unpredictable narrator or an unreliable narrator which is a slightly different thing. I do think it will be valuable to discuss unreliable narrators, but let's save that for another time, okay?

Today, I'll address unpredictability as it relates to surprising your reader.

Unpredictable stories can be hard to come by sometimes. I'll read four or five books--wonderful, glorious--predictable books for every unpredictable one I read. That certainly doesn't mean they're bad, but if you're wanting to surprise your reader, there are some tried and true methods you can use.

Reveal information only as necessary. The first author that comes to mind here is Kate Morton. She writes these deeply researched Historicals that often span generations and she's found a formula that's made her stories very uniquely hers. She moves from one generation to another, through letters sometimes, and through memories in others. Back and forth she'll tell the story, crossing centuries, from one voice to another, until the entire tale has unfolded. But, she does it so seductively that it's not until those final chapters that the crux of it all has been unveiled. In this way, her unpredictability is painstakingly planned out. Guessing the ending is near impossible because she's withheld some crucial bit of information. The key if you will. There's no unlocking the truth without it and she holds it close until the perfect moment.

Another storyteller who does this brilliantly is M. Night Shyamalan. And he does it in an entirely different way. Think about the Sixth Sense. The storyteller knew something none of the rest of us knew. He didn't flat out lie to us, but he withheld crucial information until the time was absolutely ideal. And then all of our heads exploded.

Utilize red herrings. Another method that can be employed is the use of red herrings. A red herring is anything that distracts or misleads the reader. It's a plot point or a character or a bit of dialogue that leads the reader down a false trail mentally. It's used most often in mysteries--a suspect with motive and means and a shaky alibi maybe to distract you from the real culprit--but it can be creatively used in other genres. Think of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Lots of red herrings there. Who is the Half Blood Prince? Is it Harry? Is it Malfoy? Is it He Who Must Not Be Named? Red herrings can be a very useful way to distract your reader and pull off an unpredictable ending.

Throw a good liar into the mix. If your most dashing and easily trusted character is hiding something, or lying about something, you've spiced things up in a way that could flip your story on its head. If you can reveal his deception creatively, you may just surprise your readers. The best example of this I can think of is a book I'd hate to ruin for you all, so I'm going to leave it nameless. When a very well-respected, elderly detective is called in to solve a murder we trust him immediately. In fact, the whole town does. He's the detective after all and he acts accordingly. He tracks down suspects, reveals secrets, throws an entire town into turmoil and in the end, we find that he himself committed the murder. The whole story looks different through that lens. Depending on who this character is and how this strategy is employed, this is also a brilliant way to create an unreliable narrator. But, we'll discuss that more another time.

Let yourself be surprised. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Or so says a writer pal of mine. I absolutely believe this . . . with disclaimers. During the drafting process, let your characters make a few choices. Let them surprise you with the things they're willing to do. If they want to blow something up, let them. If the fallout can't be managed, you may have to adjust, but that's what drafting is all about. Trying. Surprising yourself. Here's my disclaimer: when you reach the editing phase, you may need to smooth out these moments. You may need to go back and add hints of recklessness into your bomber's background, or you may decide the surprise fits as is. Either way, let yourself be surprised during these early phases. You'll thank yourself for it later.

Again, there is no one way to do this. There are many. I suggest reading and rereading as many unpredictable books as you can. Study how and why the author did what they did. Discuss the book with others. Get input. If you can master this, you'll take your writing to another level entirely.

How do you surprise your readers, friends? And can you suggest a few unpredictable books for those of us wanting to study them?