#PublishingReinvented 27 - Avoiding The Trap of Being Predictable & Outhinking the Competition
Predictability kills reader interest. Readers also love the familiar.
They want the comfort of a happy ending, a new way of looking at the world or a murder solved, but they also want you to deliver it in a different way to what they read last week.
They want the same, but different. A gripping beginning, a fast-moving middle and a great, jaw-dropping ending.
Not too much to ask for, is it?
We all need to bring something new to the table, something that will make our book unique.
Here are some ways you can bring something different to your book:
Change the characters around. Make the female character more x and the make more y. Make the hero less of a hero and the villain more human.
Change the settings. Make it foreign or very local. Make it set in one house or the world.
Change the era. Set your romance ten years in the future and your murder mystery a hundred years in the past.
Change viewpoints with each chapter. It keeps them in suspense. Mix first amd third. Mix styles and voice.
Put a book inside a book. Nest stories inside stories. Tell the backstory in one chapter. Resist the urge to explain in another.
Switch things around to avoid the trap of predictability.
Personal note: If you like an unpredictable Thriller please check out my new one here.
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Laurence O’Bryan
Author
Founder BooksGoSocial & The International Dublin Writers’ Festival.