: 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

@Turnbaugh521

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Your plot may be predictable, but your characters are not.

Make your hero pay a price or make a moral decision

In addition to having an external conflict, hero vs monster, you can have internal conflict, which is much less predictable.

Make the hero pay a price: he has to renounce to something he cares about in order to defeat the monster. Make him struggle about this.

Self-sacrifice is a an example. It may seem like a predictable cliché, unless you show that he has something to lose. Depending on the time span of the story, you can make the hero have a romantic interest or even raise a family in the village, so the price is not only to sacrifice himself, but also leave a family behind.

Or maybe, the only way to defeat the monster is to lose his own memory. This idea gives a cyclical effect, hinting that it's how he lost his memory in the first place.

The protagonist can also pay a moral price.

What if the only way to defeat the monster is to lure it using one of the villagers as bait? Is the hero willing to put the life of an innocent at risk?

Or even worse: sacrifice one of the villager to gain the monster's trust, and then take it by surprise. Maybe your protagonist is not so heroic as it may seem. After all, being amnesia-stricken, he may not even know himself. Or maybe he truly is heroic and refuses to perform such immoral act, but then the villagers step up and become willing to sacrifice their own.

What if there were only two ways of defeating it, both equally bad? What moral choice is the hero willing to make?

As previous answers have already mentioned, the readers may know how the plot will end, but it's the how that's more interesting.

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