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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12347
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

When I think about books which have truly surprised me with unexpected discoveries, they are usually books that avoid obvious genre tropes. When Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, readers were probably surprised along with Elizabeth to discover that Mr. Darcy was actually a much better man than George Wickham (Jane Austen did prepare the ground for this by allowing Wickham to show that he was a bit inconsistent in ways that Elizabeth only noticed later). However, now that the boy-meets-girl-they-hate-each-other-oh-look-they-are-in-love trope has become so universal, readers will assume that the heroine is going to fall for the first apparently rude but handsome fellow with whom she exchanges witty banter.

So, as one method of surprising readers, do something that goes against genre tropes. Maybe the handsome man who banters with the heroine turns out to be kind of a boring fellow upon further acquaintance. Maybe the plucky protagonist who enters the boxing tournament against all odds, in a desperate bid to clear his father's farm from debt, actually loses. If you build up the event in a fairly normal manner, readers may miss your clues because they expect a typical outcome.

Original score: 2