Surprise!
By Donald Maass | September 7, 2011 |
Do you like surprise parties? Watch videos of them and the reactions are almost always the same. As the victim enters there’s a loud, “Surprise!” The victim looks shocked. Her hands fly to her face. Her head shakes. “No, no, no!”
Resistance and denial is a natural response. After all, a surprise means an unexpected and involuntary change of plans. It’s inconvenient. But soon enough the party is underway. Even the victim is having a great time. Everyone’s happy that the surprise was planned.
Surprises in your stories can be planned too, but the process of creating them is likely to leave you feeling victimized. It’s a change of plans. It’s inconvenient. To make the party fun is going to take a lot of work. You’ll have to organize the big moment even while keeping it a big secret. But hey, in the end the party will rock.
Often story surprises are not much of a jolt. Did you ever see a plot turn coming miles away? The fault may lie in poor concealment but more likely the error is that the “turn” is something we expect. Events that unfold like they’re supposed to cannot surprise.
Are you a careful outliner or a carefree improviser? Either way, to create an effective surprise you must first of all surprise yourself. You must shake up your idea of your story. That’s fearful. It’s messy. It means work. But do it.
Here are some dynamite sticks to use:
Pick a point somewhere fairly early in your current manuscript. At this stage, what’s the most inconvenient thing that can happen to your protagonist? What’s the wildest curve ball? What’s going to mess up his life but good? What’s going to turn her received ideas upside down? Got it? Go ahead. Drop it like a bomb.
Pick a character other than your protagonist or antagonist. What’s the most unlikely, unexpected or unhelpful thing this character could possibly do? Guess what? Yep, make it happen. Then make it worse. Work backwards to make the action something that your protagonist would never guess could occur. Spring the action at the least convenient time.
Appoint yourself God. Survey your story from on high. This story of yours has grown complacent. It’s taking you for granted. It’s not thankful enough. It needs to be humbled. Think of a nasty disaster to throw at it. Toss it down like a bolt of lightning. Take that! Ha! Teach it a lesson.
Now, whatever destruction you’ve unleashed think through its every implication. List every untidy consequence. What must be done to clean up the mess? How many steps must be taken? That’s your punch list. Work until you’ve crossed off every item. When you’re done you’ve not only dropped a bomb, you’ve made it an essential part of the story.
Too often big upsets are saved for later, secondary characters stay “in character”, and authors play it safe. If the “surprise” you’ve contrived is already in your manuscript, or makes you chortle and say, “Easy!”, then you’ve missed the point. If you don’t shake up yourself then your readers’ mouths probably won’t drop open.
As I’ve been saying, beautiful writing isn’t just pretty prose. It’s using the techniques of high impact storytelling. Surprise is one such tool. Use it at least once in the process of drafting your current manuscript and enjoy the party.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s Mell P
Donald Maass (he/him) founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency. in New York in 1980. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009), The Breakout Novelist (2011), Writing 21st Century Fiction (2012) and The Emotional Craft of Fiction (2019). He has presented hundreds of workshops around the world and is a past president of the American Association of Literary Agents (formerly AAR).
Nice solid post. I have to work more on being God. :) I have more experience cleaning up the mess. Do you keep lists of catastrophes or do they just develop out of the characters themselves?
What an inspiring and encouraging post. I love this website. I always find something new and different to consider in the creation of a story. Going back to my current project to get a rockin’ party started’. Thanks.
Love this. I agree that it’s about playing it safe. The biggest problem with setting off a surprise explosion in your story is you’re the one that has to work your way out of it, as well! But I do think that the extra effort is worth it — and in today’s publishing climate, it’s necessary. Thanks for the reminder!
Terrific article.
I’m working very hard on my new novel to employ this “Make It Worse” technique. I attended an Intensive in San Antonio and a Fire In Fiction in Dallas and have used everything I learned there to make my writing better. Keep the tips coming!
Thanks.
Thanks for the concrete “surprise” ideas to try
!
In my latest manuscript, I struggled with one of the main male characters – was he a bad guy or not? I couldn’t decide until the end and then I knew what choice I had to make. And then I had to go back and make sure the choice worked. But recent feedback said they found the plot confusing so it sounds like I need to revisit that punch list. Great post – thanks!
Thanks so much for this post.The Breakout Novelist has already inspired awesome changes in my writing and this will, too.
Will do.
Great post. “Think of a nasty disaster to throw at it. Toss it down like a bolt of lightning. Take that! Ha! Teach it a lesson.” Posting that on my wall next to my writing desk. Love it.
Excellent post. I know I sometimes have to fight myself to really mess up my characters. They’re nice folks, ya know? Hard to want something bad to happen to them! But then I smile and push them off a cliff.
Thanks again for reminding us we MUST be God in our worlds!
Very rarely do I get the opportunity to read a “surprise” in a novel but when I do and my mouth drops open and I think, “no way”, I love the book even more. I integrated a surprise into one of my books and loved it.
Thanks for this post.
Patti
Yet I’ve found that shock value alone only takes the story so far, and that the tactic can easily become gratuitous and contrived.
Good plots ultimately stem from characters under adversity. The greater the struggle, the better the plot.
To really rivet readers, you must give them something to worry about. Make your readers nervous. How? If you have convincing characters and a sufficiently complex situation, suspense can be built by then letting readers glimpse your overall purpose. Parcel out your information piece-by-piece, in such a way that your readers will feel a sense of anticipation over what happens next. What was the last time a book or movie had you riveted? If you analyze how that came about, you’ll see that the reason you felt this way is that through capable plotting — which is to say, a complicated situation — the storyteller created characters whom you cared about and that storyteller let you in little-by-little on her purpose.
One man’s opinion.
These sudden “big surprises” are the bumps that send me off the tracks of my outline. In a good way, of course.
Great post! The ideas are flowing. I’ve got a lot of work to do to wreak more havoc on my characters.*evil laugh* Am I taking too much pleasure in their pain?
At the heart of any good story is conflict, after all. Surprises create that conflict, even if only with one’s emotions and plans.
At the heart of any good story is conflict, after all. Surprises create that conflict, even if only with one’s emotions and plans. If they throw even more things into disarray, so much the better!
I’m working on that! I allowed a character to totally surprise me today and I went with it. Thanks for all your great advice!
My only addition to the post would be to remember that not all surprises should be happy, and not all of them should be unwelcome, either. Mix them up. Use the personality of the character and the story to guide you. Be unconventional. Do something absolutely outrageous in one case, then do something that is apparently pedestrian in another instance – but create a situation later on in the story where that pedestrian surprise becomes a major inconvenience, or joy in the life of the character.
Most of all, have fun with it. If you’re entertained by your story, there is a good chance your readers will be, too.
I think this post relates back nicely to Anna Elliott’s earlier post ( https://staging-writerunboxed.kinsta.cloud/2011/08/18/surprise-surprise/ ) about how surprises should arise organically for maximum effect. And I think her thoughts address Ray’s concern (a few comments up) about how “shock value” isn’t going to be successful. You’re both right, IMO. It’s not about creating conflict for the SAKE of conflict, but for the sake of shaking up the protagonist’s world, for identifying his/her fears and then making him/her address them.
In other words, this post gives some great tips on how to dig up natural surprises. Thanks!
I not only love your always spot-on advice and suggestions, Donald, but especially appreciate that you are so kind as to share the ABC steps of getting it done. Your posts here are much like your books, rich, full of wisdom, and never disappoint.
Thank you for the reminder that the surprises are often best when they catch readers early on and not just held onto for the final pages. Fabulous!
Yes, as a writer, I am God.
….but how come all my characters are atheists?
Thanks for the inspiration. I write better when I just go for it and write the unexpected. Unfortunately, I usually have to work against a voice that says, “You aren’t supposed to do that,” which I know is exactly the reason to do it.
Thank you so much for this! Just yesterday I was so frustrated because I have three of the dubbed “surprises” in my novel and I felt I was doing too much. It’s nice to see it’s ok to get into playing a stern God with my world.
Great post – useful and oh-so-true. I love surprises, upsets, the unexpected…..crafting it so that the reader does not pick up on it is the key – and making sure that it all makes sense so we don’t insult the reader. Love your post!
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