I consider it one of the most difficult challenges that I have to face every time my fingers touch this keyboard. I definitely want people to remain invested and keep them riveted as much as I can from beginning to end, but I still want to give some hints, clues, and a touch of foreshadowing along the way. Going along with the principle of Chekhov’s Gun in crafting a story, “If a gun shows up in the first act, then it should come back for use in the third act.” I’m paraphrasing, but the idea is creating a rather nonchalant setup for future events that will serve a satisfying payoff to your readers at some point. One that they might have never seen coming. That used to be the fun part, you know?

Not so much anymore. Hehehe! It’s a massive headache. Seriously. But I’m constantly trying to navigate my way around it. Any advice would help me out a lot, you guys.

When I first started taking classes about film, I remember being really worried that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy and appreciate movies in the same way that I had been for my entire life up to that point. I got soooo much enjoyment out of being able to relax and let a movie take me on this incredible journey that I could be surprised by and explore as it pulls me along towards a climax that would be worth the energy and emotion that I put in to get there. I lived for it! (Still do!) Not only that, but I often watch reaction videos to movies on Youtube because many of them have a way to revive that energy within me when I get to see some of my all time favorite movies for the first time all over again through their eyes. Like, for example, there’s a channel with villagers (from deep in India, I believe) who have never ever seen ANY of these big budget, American made, blockbusters before. Some of the concepts alone are absolutely mind-blowing to them! Can you imagine them watching “Avatar” for the first time? Or “The Terminator”? Or “Back To The Future”? Indiana Jones, Predator, the Exorcist...it causes gasps of shock and surprise and when I see them watch something like “The Sixth Sense” all the way to the end, it gets me all excited again too. Just like they are.

These are a bit long, so watch at your leisure if you like, but look at how they reacted to their first viewing of “Jurassic Park”! Not only had they never seen it before, but they didn’t even know what the movie was ABOUT! No idea! The shock of seeing a true to life dinosaur on screen for the first time is priceless! And that’s the kind of awe and inspiration that I wish I could create with the stories I tell.

What I love about stuff like this is that they still feel something as they’re following the story. They still get worried or scared, get sad, get angry, feel joy, smile when two people fall in love...there’s room left in their hearts to be amazed. And that means that every last ounce of effort that went into these movies and the writing gets a chance to really be center stage and appreciated to its fullest. So...why do I consider this such a horrendous challenge these days? It shouldn’t be so hard, right?

Well, it’s because this is no longer the case for a lot of people who dive into media in all its forms and outlets and gobble it up multiple times on a daily basis to the point where I fear the act of letting the storyteller take the lead and guide their audience on this creative journey is becoming a lost art. Everybody has already seen everything before, or at the very least they believe they have. What can I possibly do?

Creating mystery, secrets, plot twists, and intrigue, has become increasingly difficult in my opinion because the key to all of that lies within the unpredictability of the story. People can’t just involve themselves and ride along as a passenger anymore. They’re constantly trying to mentally jump ahead of the writer, and figure everything out for themselves before it happens. Hehehe, any of my friends or family members that sit down and watch a movie with me that I’ve seen before will tell you, I will NOT be an accomplice in that game! “What happens next? Is he the killer? Somebody’s going to show up to help aren’t they? How does he get out of this? Go on, you can tell me.” NOPE!!! Hehehe! Somebody put all of this effort into crafting a story and leading you down a particular path in whatever way they saw fit in order to entertain you. So it’s not my place to get in the way. If you relax and pay attention to what’s going on instead of mentally skipping ahead to the last page in order to cheat yourself out of the experience, then I’m sure your questions will be answered in time. Until then….shhhhh! Calm down. Answers are coming when they come. Geez...

But it’s hard to get a lot of readers to do that anymore. Granted, it often takes me an unnatural amount of time to bring out a new chapter of the story they’re looking for, and it might be better to drop a whole story at once so they can race through it before they have too much time to really think about it...but still...I want to create a level of curiosity and intrigue in my stories as often as I can. I don’t want to be predictable, but sometimes I can’t help but to project some of my typical Comicality tropes and give the whole game away within the first chapter or two. So it’s something that I sort of wrestle with, but I’m trying.

I can’t really create any intrigue without a bit of mystery and anticipation for getting a peek at what might be around the next corner. I can’t just have things happen at random, but the second that I try to set up future events...the story begins to fall in line with a particular ‘formula’. I mean, we all have an idea of how stories work, and it’s nearly impossible to get out of that format and not end up have things get really weird and unorthodox in ways that may not appeal to a wider audience. So how do you get around this?

One tried and true method is the act of setting up red herrings to throw your audience off the scent of your true intentions...but, unfortunately, some readers have gotten hip to that trick as well. So, if your red herring ever gets revealed AS a red herring...the whole effect begins to immediately fall apart, and you find yourselves in the same predictable quicksand that you were in when you started. It’s like putting on a magic show for a group of magicians. They know the deflection, they know the slight of hand, they know the tilt of the mirror or the concealment of the chosen card in the deck. What do you do? It’s so exhausting sometimes!

So...here I am, giving you a hint at a the very FEW tricks that I have left so that maybe you can perfect them and use them in your own writing. I give away my secrets...because I’m so smart.

One thing that I try to use to my advantage is crafting a narrative that has two big questions or directions to go in, seemingly of equal importance. They’re not, but I try to keep up the appearance that that’s what is going on here. For example, I may have a teen who is happily devoted to his boyfriend and might be dealing with a rival for his affections...and at the same time, he may be struggling through the threat of being outed to his parents by a next door neighbor or family friend. Now, this is an extended way of going about doing this...but I can piece together the parts of the story that I want to focus on most, and just when readers start trying to ‘hack the system’ and begin thinking, “Ohhh, ok. I see where this is going. It’s probably going to be this, that, and this, then probably that”...I can switch to the other main focus of the story and let them tackle that one for a bit. And if I’m lucky, I can keep things bouncing back and forth for long enough where I get to tell my story and still, hopefully, have some surprises left to put together a decent and crowd pleasing ending. It doesn’t always work, but I’m still learning. Only practice will help me find the instincts I need to develop.

Something else that I’ve found to work on occasion is to practice putting out a quick reveal and a quick payoff multiple times throughout the story. Before my readers have too long to really overthink anything. I mean, nobody can read a whole story all at once, right? They go page by page, minute by minute, from beginning to end. That’s what I’m trying to maintain in my storytelling. I obviously have a major arch in the whole story, but I try to get people to focus on one little condensed problem at a time, cause, conflict, and solution. Solve smaller little mysteries for now and then have them build up to a climax where everything comes into play and hopefully with a few surprises along the way. Basically, it’s just me trying to leave the appropriate breadcrumbs behind for an audience to follow...without really giving any hints towards the big picture. The struggle with this method, of course, is to keep things on track and not take any detours from what you’re trying to accomplish. You don’t want to let your story wander aimlessly and then try to waste time reeling it back to the main point. You just want the readers to work on how to solve smaller issues while you head towards your ending in the background. Attempting to avoid the curse of predictability is no easy task.

Hehehe, do you see what I mean when I said it was a process that could be exhausting? And it’s getting more so by the day, it seems. But, as writers...we just do what we can. And maybe carry a few people on a fun journey along with us.

Now, understand...sometimes people will pull out their Batman charts with the red strings and the thumbtacks and attempt to beat you to the point anyway. And sometimes you’ll just want to write a story that’s pretty straightforward and doesn’t need any intrigue to work. Especially if you’re writing erotic fiction. Just do what you do and hopefully you’ll interest and excite your readers either way. But if you’re trying your hand at a mystery, a thriller, or even just some big moments in a well written piece of romantic fiction...these are a few ways that I’ve been trying to perfect in order to make that work. If you’ve got any other ideas, I’d love to hear them! Because my bag of tricks feels a bit on the light side when it comes to this particular problem. I’ll learn one day. Just you wait and see! Hehehe!

I hope this helps you guys out with your own writing, and that you’ll keep some of the useful parts of this post in mind and close to your heart. Feel free to discuss down below! And I’ll seezya soon!

Or will I? Dun dun dun!