: Re: How can I avoid a predictable plot? When writing a novel, authors generally don't want the reader to know how things will end. This is especially true of mystery novels, but obviously applies

@Annie587

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An amnesia-stricken newcomer arrives in the only village on the island, and quickly learns that life there revolves around escaping the island. The only way to escape the island is by defeating the evil monster keeping everyone from leaving.

You might not know exactly how, but you can tell that the amnesia-stricken newcomer is going to be the one who kills the monster and frees the people.

Hero-plots are probably the most predictable story type.

You have sold me on a trope of "nameless hero fights a monster". I am not dumb. I have seen too many hero stories to believe this will end any other way, no matter how many times you try a fake-out. You've telegraphed this guy is a hero archetype. There aren't really any other options since you've deliberately stripped away any possibility that he has a unique personality, conflicts, or a family. He doesn't even have a status quo to leave, he is a guy already on an adventure with nothing else to do.

If you base your plot on a Joseph Campbell-esque "hero with a thousand faces" mono-trope then of course everyone will guess how it ends. You are deliberately telling a very old and very one-note plot that is little more than a simplistic male power fantasy. These things end predictably because the goal is always the same: hero is super-awesome!

Cinderella-plots, the female-coded equivalent, are equally predictable and popular.

What if he is just a regular guy who grew up in this village in fear of the monster and amnesiac strangers? Now I am less sure how this story will turn out.

What if you code the story for horror instead of hero – now I am unsure what the stranger brings, or how many of the villagers lure amnesiac strangers to be fed to their monster, or maybe the "monster" is something totally unexpected like modern-day normal people in cars, like an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Maybe it is coded like a political thriller, and the real story is all about how the villagers react to the possibility that a stranger might change their status quo – now I really don't know how it will turn out because whether or not he defeats a monster is irrelevant to the theme of the story. Anything might happen because heroes and monsters are metaphors.

He could die shortly after arriving in the village and the rest of the story is a few villagers trying to convince the town (and the monster) that he is still a very living threat. Now I've completely subverted expectations because I started with a hero archetype but I was willing to discard him: hero is not super-awesome (gasp) instead here are some plucky guile characters that are much more interesting and extremely under-powered. Sure, I'm still expecting them to "beat" the monster somehow, but it's not so predictable.

There are many other story types, and many other kinds of characters and conflicts. Adding some other flavors to the story will make the ending less inevitable, but to be honest most readers will know what kind of story it is no matter how you try to disguise it, based on the protagonist archetype. If he's a blank-slate male power fantasy, it will severely narrow your options as a writer.

Don't blame readers when they can predict the end. No matter how convoluted you make the plot, they know the purpose of that archetype. You'll have to be willing to subvert the awesome guy fantasy, or tell a story about someone other than awesome guy. "Awesome Guy" only has the one ending: sunsets and boats and adored by all.

See also: Mary Sue.

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