: 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

@Phylliss352

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This will agree with/repeat some of what other answers have said, but hopefully it provides another perspective.
If the story doesn't pick up after 14 chapters, however many thousands of words there is too much prelude. If you read those chapters carefully and ask what each part does, much will prove worthy of excising. Once you've lost sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, characters and so on, take another look at what you felt worthy of preservation. If it's still too predictable, maybe some of what was revealed there should be postponed. Don't let the reader know anything before they really need to.
In fact, what's most important to reveal early on is what the characters are like, not the individual facts they're acting on. This is for two reasons: it makes us care more about the story, and it helps you control what's revealed and when, addressing the predictability issue.
You've still got the remaining chapters to write. As far as possible, throw your plans for these to the side for the moment. Make sure characters act in a way that's true to them, not to any plot you'd envisaged if that would be different. Besides,if you don't know what's coming next, how will your reader?

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