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Topic : Re: How to subvert expectations and abort plotlines without alienating the reader? Subverting expectations and suddenly aborting plotlines was a no-go zone for me for a while. The only time I could - selfpublishingguru.com

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If you are subverting expectations just to be different, don't. That's how you get disasters like the final season of Game of Thrones. That Arya thing Shadowzee mentioned isn't the only expectation they subverted poorly.

There's two big problems with setting your goal as to subvert expectations.

You're focused too much on meta-goals. Where your work fits in the genre is much less important than whether or not it's good in the first place. If you're too focused on subverting tropes, you will not put enough effort into other aspects of the writing. Maybe characterization takes a dive because characters have to do things they otherwise wouldn't just to subvert some expectation. Maybe there's plot holes that have to be left open because closing them would fulfill expectations. Remember, it doesn't matter how many tropes you subvert if no one reads it.
Not all expectations are bad. Look at the laser hallway in the first Resident Evil movie. They show it off towards the beginning of the movie as an impenetrable security system. Wouldn't it have been disappointing if Alice had just got in some other way? Wouldn't it have been disappointing if that other guy hadn't been sliced apart by it? I mean, that's a great CGI effect, and we easily could've missed out on it if the writers wanted to subvert Chekov's Gun.

In general I think a good way to tell what expectations are OK to subvert is to see if that subversion would add or remove tension. I think it's nearly always good to use a subverted expectation to add tension. Ned Stark's death, Vader being Luke's father, Halo being a weapon that kills everyone not just the Flood are all good subversions because they expand pre-existing plotlines and open up new ones. Bad subversions wrap things up too neatly with no chance of more development, and they do so in a way with little to no buildup.


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