What's next?
Erin Edwards asked me to expand on this from my post about revising: "Am I leading the reader along properly so that what happens is neither predictable nor too far fetched to believe?" Erin added, "I think this takes real skill and is ultimately what makes a book satisfying."
Predictability happens to be timely for me right now. I just (ten minutes ago) emailed my mystery novel to my editor, who hasn’t seen a word of it. So I’m wondering if my villain is going to be instantly obvious.
Of course I want his or her identity to be a surprise, but I’m willing to put up with other writers’ predictability in some cases. I’m a great fan of the Adrian Monk TV series, for example, although sometimes I can spot the villain as soon as I lay eyes on him, before the plot has even been laid out. I’m okay with that because I’m there for the laughs and the poignancy of Monk’s sad life.
Readers of my fiction come to it expecting an ending that won’t leave them feeling hopeless. I may write a really sad book one day, and if I do, some people will be disappointed and even angry at me. We go to some books, especially series books, craving predictability. We want to enjoy again what pleased us before. There’s some of that pleasure in rereading books we love.
For tellers of old tales, like me, the story’s ending is known; what’s unknown is how the ending is achieved.
There's more; read the whole thing.
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