: Re: How can I make the story less predictable? I'm working on my first novel. As I was going through the initial chapters, I felt that the story is quite simple and predictable (in the initial

@Mendez196

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I'm going to suggest a reverse deus ex machina.
The Empire Strikes Back (R) *
Instead of the MC always being the winner for their godlike powers of being able to always win, make them lose for no apparent reason. Give the "bad guy" the deus ex machina, at least once in a while.
Maybe the MC has everything planned out to the Nth detail, has the superior firepower, has superior strength and speed, has everything going for them, and then totally flops on execution for a defeat. Maybe it's crushing and they have to do a major retreat or they have to take a significant amount of time to regroup. Maybe it's just a "oh, crap" moment that they rethink on the fly and just barely get defeated.
If this was a war flick, it'd be something like a whole battalion against a single company, so the overwhelming forces just rush in and throw a lot of ordinance and soldiers at the enemy. Only to find out too late it's an ambush, where there's landmines, hidden bunkers and mortars, lots of air and artillery support, and it just becomes their own slaughter when it should have been an easy victory.
Or this could be as simple as the "bad guy" throwing a red herring at the MC and it being followed to it's "logical" conclusion. In this case, don't let the reader in on the red herring, like so many writers like to do. Make it seem as if it's 100% obvious it's the correct course, sort of like how Prof. Moriarty tricked Sherlock Holmes several times.
This could lead the MC to start doubting themselves to the point where they are chasing lots of leads with the idea that it's not just one that's correct. The MC getting frustrated and mad because of twists and turns can help endear them to the reader, too. A plot that has a well defined start, path, and finish can easily be predictable, pedantic, and boring. If it's obvious what the MC should do and they do it, it's easy to lose interest.
At the same time, though, the thing I didn't like about the Holmes books is that there was a bunch of things you "just had to know" in order to solve the mystery. And most of it was period specific or didn't age well, as science progressed. The other side of this coin is putting in too much info and doing it obviously, like it sounds like your first 14 chapters are trying to do. It's perfectly well and good to introduce relevant info about character's pasts as the book progresses. Talking about memories, past relationships, dream sequences, even flashbacks are perfectly normal parts of books. This doesn't have to be a perfectly linear account of the MC. It's not their biography.
One thing to avoid, which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Jules Verne didn't, are the rabbit trails about some of the minutia of the specifics. Sir Doyle Verne would talk for pages about the background of something that's barely relevant to the story. He'd mention something like a specific fish or bird, then go on a mini-thesis about how it came to be and why it's in that part of the world as well as how & why it's different from it's cousins. It really distracts from the story, which I have a feeling you are seeing in those first 14 chapters to a limited extent.
* Yes, I realize I didn't use any other Star Wars references in this section. Empire is a classic "bad guy wins" movie, so I thought it would be self explanatory.
Chekhov's gun
There's probably plenty of times the rule of Chekhov's gun applies in those first 14 chapters. You don't have to apply it absolutely everything, because sometimes that can lead to the unpredictability you are looking for, but it can help you figure out what stays and what goes. Leaving some irrelevant things in can be a source of comedy, too. In one series I read, there was a group of MCs, one of which had a thick Scottish accent. Late in the series, he's in a different part of the World/Universe and writes the main MC a letter. It's in perfect, unaccented English. The character even makes fun of the MC for thinking he'd write in the brogue. The letter was relevant to the story, but not the character's writing style. Still, it gave me a chuckle and helped lighten the mood a little, as they are getting ready for battle.
Writing is an art and not a science because it doesn't necessarily have to follow all the rules all the time. An action story doesn't have to be 100% action. In fact, the better ones aren't 100% action, since they reader needs to be able to catch their breath as well as the MC needing some downtime to deal with the next action sequence. You can't have them carry 10k 9mm rounds for all the shooting sequences in a 1000 page novel, nor can you have them always find a clip for their pistol just laying on the ground that magically fits. That might be a rule, too, but it could also be broken for a very short story where it is all action.
Since it's an art, you'll have to revise and rewrite until it's where you want it to be. It helps if your readers like it too, but maybe you just want the story on paper for yourself, not the reader. A writer can get into a rut by writing just what readers want, instead of what the writer wants.

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