Should a reader have enough information to deduce the twist?
When building a twist into the ending, should I leak enough information such that astute readers could predict the twist if they stopped and mulled it over or should I withhold key elements to guarantee it is a surprise?
As a follow-up: Does a reader feel smart or robbed if they can see the twist?
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There are two versions of "the reader can't figure out the ending." One is Sherlock Holmes, and the other is Murder by Death.
In the Holmes stories, the reader doesn't necessarily see all the details which Holmes does at the time, but he does explain them all at some point by the end, so the trail of logic is clear. (At which point the reader might ejaculate "Child's play, Holmes!" along with the good doctor.)
In Murder by Death, which is a parody of detective stories, the murderer complains at the end about stories which introduce impossible details, unknown suspects, and twists which are essentially authorial butt-pulls because there's literally no way the reader could have figured it out.
The Murder by Death version is definitely annoying. I would suggest you don't do that. The Holmes version may work if it's something which the reader could follow in hindsight or on re-reading. A logical chain which we don't see until it's pointed out is different from "No, it was the secret identical twin you never heard about until just now!"
Part of the fun of a mystery is trying to solve it along with the protagonist. If you make it impossible because all the data isn't there, it takes some of the enjoyment out of it.
Some readers like being able to figure out the twist; others prefer it to be really hard. That's YMMV, and I wouldn't worry about it too much.
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By definition, it is not a twist if the reader sees it coming. In fact, there is nothing worse than a plot twist that you see coming. Nothing makes a story seem more contrived than when you see the twist coming and it does.
Now, if the reader sees a twist coming and then the story actually twists the other way, that is more interesting. But it is something of a high wire act. Who is to say that the reader will keep reading when they are convinced a predictable twist is coming.
But the most important thing about a twist is that it must provide a more satisfying ending than the one that the reader was expecting. A mere zig zag is simply going to leave the story in the ditch. The twist has to provide the more satisfying and more logical outcome, the outcome that makes better sense of all that has gone before.
Twists work when you don't see them coming, and when things make so much more sense after the do. It's that second part that is both essential and tricky. You have to lay the groundwork so that the twist makes sense when it comes without telegraphing that it is coming, since a telegraphed twist is just disappointing.
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It's all about readability.
Do you want your readers to read your book again, and find out some unique new puzzle or piece of information that they never noticed in the first read through? Are you writing your book to be a one night stand, just a fling - or do you want your book to be something that is re-read, reanalyzed and redigested to understand deeper meanings?
Probably not.
But leading in enough information to design a story through subtle hints that occur that can be overlooked, or leading in with foreshadowing are very powerful techniques that create the 'woah' moment that brings readers back for more, especially in the science fiction genre.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27385. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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