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Zxro
May '22

Hello, My name is Reuben and I am the writer of a novel called Eternal Requiem, my question is,
Is the slow methodical approach good for storytelling or is it more acceptable to write story events at a much faster pace?

This is my novel btw;

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Ordinaryaverageguy
May '22

I'm not sure that your subject question matches the rest of the post. How does the speed of story events occurring subvert the reader's expectations?

DualDragonsMaster of Yeet
May '22

I agree. Based on your question I think you should change the title to "what pacing should I use?" or something along those lines

LunarScyphozoa
May '22

Subverting expectations is a completely different thing from pacing, so I’m not sure if I should answer the title or the post?

CloudyMagpie
May '22

This post sure subverted a lot people's of expectations, huh? :wink:

I'm gonna answer the post title because that was what I was prepared to do when I clicked on this thread.

While I like to be surprised by the way a writer uses certain plot points, characters, and other tropes, it needs to make logical sense. Don't lead your readers down one path, using breadcrumbs, hints, character development, etc, and then change it last minute just for the sake of subverting expectations

Sometimes the only logical path is to meet your readers' expectations head-on. Like, yea, everyone saw that coming, but that's okay. I think it's much better to know that people are connecting the dots than to have a bunch of confused and unsatisfied readers.

Zxro
May '22
Ordinaryaverageguy

Not necessarily the speed of story events, What I meant by subverting expectations, was a story the first few chapters, may contrast the up coming coming ones,
How do you feel about reading/writing chapters that seemingly set up the story to go one way, only for the direction to completely shift after like 20 chapters,
(I'm sorry. bad at explaining my thoughts)

Ordinaryaverageguy
May '22

To some degree, subverting the reader's expectations can be good story telling. For example, surprise endings. Another example: plot twists. If you started a story about characters A, B, C & D, but then after many chapters abandoned them & began telling another (maybe related) story about W, X, Y & Z you'd probably annoy &/or confuse readers.

apexdraws
May '22
Zxro

A twist like you describe can be successful (and even generate some publicity) but it depends on how you pull it off.

If you spend 20 chapters doing X and then suddenly switch to Y with no warning, readers might be confused & feel like they just "lost" the story they got invested in. I think it would go over better to either hint at Y a few times during the first part of the story, or switch to Y earlier.

RiidDisBuk2
May '22

I am currently writing a story that subverts the expectations of the audience. It's not published yet, but it shall be in the next couple of weeks. I love a story that tells a different tale unlike the typical standard story telling we always get.

Typically, dark stories do a very good job of that and I cannot wait to post mine.

igneriss
May '22

For me it depends on how is it handled. Sometimes the sudden change can be great, and sometimes it feels like an author suddenly changed their mind.
Usually I'm okay with pace of the story changing (especially when it's fast-paced at the end of the book). I'm fine with sudden turn from a bright to a dark story, as long as it doesn't feel forced (sometimes it feels like a writer tries everything to shock a reader without any other meaning behind it and that makes me bored with a book pretty quickly).
Though again, it depends on what and how is changing. Once I read a book that suddenly changed genres in 3/4 of the first volume, and I was so disappointed. I mean, I still liked the book, just had a feeling that it would be so much better if any hints were given before or if it kept the genre. But this one is on me for not reading summary. In another book, author changed completely how she wrote one of characters, so readers and other characters would hate on him. I didn't like that book, I didn't like what the author did with this character and I'm still bitter about it.

GumshoeComix
May '22
Zxro

depends on what you mean by that because the first few chapters are supposed to set the tone for the rest of the story.
So I don't think it's a good idea to give your readers whiplash by going from a slice of life for the first few chapters then suddenly it's horror. If you want to do that it has to be horror by the end of the first chapter. (just an example)

and like Apexdraws says it should be hinted at throughout the story, doing stuff like that keeps readers coming too cause they like finding clues.

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closed Jul 19, '22

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