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Surprise is the cheapest of literary devices. People often reread their favorite books and re-watch their favorite movies. They would not do so if their enjoyment of them depended on surprise. With...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:50Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23570 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:22:44Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23570 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:22:44Z (over 4 years ago)
Surprise is the cheapest of literary devices. People often reread their favorite books and re-watch their favorite movies. They would not do so if their enjoyment of them depended on surprise. With effective storytelling our hearts can still be in our mouths for a character at a critical juncture no matter how often we have read the story. If we can enjoy a story even when we know exactly what is going to happen, then predictability of plot is not a problem in itself. When people complain about predictability in fiction, I think what they are referring to is predictability in the writing itself, the writer's use of cheap and easy tricks and emotional manipulations, of stock ill-developed characters, or heroes and villains without subtlety. They are complaining that it is like every other book in the telling.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2016-06-26T11:05:22Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 4