Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Foregone conclusion of novel's first part

If you are so sure the reader is going to be sure what happens, then you need to make the journey interesting. There are plenty of stories in which everyone knows what's going to happen and enjoys ...

posted 6y ago by White Eagle‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:39:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35702
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar White Eagle‭ · 2019-12-08T08:39:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
If you are so sure the reader is going to be sure what happens, then you need to make the journey interesting. There are plenty of stories in which everyone knows what's going to happen and enjoys it anyways because the journey is interesting (superhero movies, romance, some mystery stories, etc.).

You could lead the rider away from the truth that he will succeed. Maybe he gets rejected, hurts himself badly, or gets another job. I don't think this is the approach you want to take.

The other approach is to make the journey more interesting. You can start by making the training operations interesting and engage the reader there. You can also use this time to build relationships between characters that will last throughout the novel. See _Ender's game_ for a good example of interesting training. One last idea is to use the time to do some worldbuilding and explain the galaxy via dialogue and discussion between character.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-04-29T17:54:30Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 2