Mar 2020
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Mar 2020
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snowy
Mar '20

That happened like twice, but it was my own fault for dropping hints when people were like "Now I really wanna know what happens next !". I actually PMed them and politely asked if they wouldn't mind editing the comment where they hit the nail on the head, which they were kind enough to do.
Still, I had lots of plot things going on, so even with them guessing one, there was still stuff happening they didn't see coming. So not a total loss.

That's the trick, I guess : Have more than one plot twist.

Also, I have learned not to underestimate how clever my readers are, so no more hints. :slight_smile:

snowy
Mar '20

..and I was unaware that we can ban people.

Lol, if I ever get enough subs to warrant a troll, I'd be so excited I'd smother it with affection. It would ban itself out of pure embarassment.

Darth_Biomech
Mar '20
Jenny-Toons

Why not? If it spreads, it'll spoil the whole thing for lots of readers. While there are people who are "eh, spoilers, whatever, it's not the destination it's the journey yadda-yadda", there is a large enough amount of people for whom knowing in advance how the things will unfold is a serious downer (Which means "they might lose interest and stop reading"). Especially if mystery is a major part of the plot.

KelheorRegular
Mar '20

Well until you are as popular as G.R.R.Martin, I think you're good =) This is just one theory from one person and their opinion may change in the next chapter. You won't go and rewrite the plot you thought through some time ago because of one comment, won't you? :thinking:

I am (not a writer) thinking of this as a published author. They publish the book and they are done. Reader's comments don't bother them and their plot. The same should be here. Sometimes I panic when people make comments because they think something is suspicious (and it's not), but I already drew the next 5 pages, so I don't believe I should think about it anymore.
Or it would be like you redraw your comic every time someone is saying they don't like your style ¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯

Jenny-Toons
Mar '20
1
Darth_Biomech

Guessing one aspect of a story doesn't change how it's told. Like yeah, they know the big plot twist, but they're not gonna know how it'll go down or how I'll reveal it.Even more so, predicting parts of stories has been around for a while. That's a given. Some people get it right, some people don't.

Example -- Unohana from Bleach had always, ALWAYS, been predicted to be the previous Kenpachi for the Soul Society. Why? Because although she was soft-spoken and was the medical division, people were afraid of crossing her. People would never challenge her. And you know what? That turned out to be right. But this was a prediction built up on people paying attention to the story for years (because again -- Bleach is a 20+ year manga). People could see those little moments and infer.

That's why I said I don't care.

If you can figure out my story telling, follow along, and understand, it means you were paying attention. It means you were captivated enough to try and see how I could spin the plot twist.

If I get readers like that, I'm set.

People who go "oh, this story sucks because XYA" are people who aren't my readers. They just guess and happen to be right. I can't just quit a story or try and stop the commenter because someone guesses right on coincidence. Because again -- nothing is set in stone, and for me to try and stop someone would imply that it is.

It implies that I think my story is so flimsy that one little comment breaks it down.

And that's silly.

I just let that shit ride, keep writing my story, and so on. People are gonna be impressed whether they know a prediction came true or not. I know because I've kept reading stories that made predictions come true.

IndigoShirtProd
Mar '20
Darth_Biomech

No it won't. Unless the author confirms the plot point, it's not a spoiler, just a fan theory. No other reader is obliged to agree with how someone else thinks a story will end and having a plausible theory in mind will likely just make how it actually unfolds that much more satisfying. The thing is that, lot of times the audience will guess what will happen, but they won't guess the mechanisms through which those plot points are met, meaning that there's still space for them learn something new.

Jenny-Toons
Mar '20

I also want to add something separate from my OG posts:

Predictions are not necessarily spoilers.

So someone guessed your plot twist and it's right -- ok. Other people don't know that. Only you, the creator, know that, and they're only right if you decide to tell them they're right early on as opposed to just...letting them guess and see if they're right.

HGohwell
Mar '20

Not to be rude (but I'm gonna be blunt and rude) the reason why a lot of creators don't and shouldn't care if the big plot twisted is guessed is:

If all your story has is a big surprising plot twist and once that's spoiled there's nothing else to keep your audience invested, it's a shitty story.

If the only reason people are reading/watching/viewing is to be surprised by the plot twist and then if it's spoiled the entire story is boring, that means your characters are boring, your world is boring, you plot is boring if it didn't have the twist and you have created something that has, at most, one reread/rewatch to see the foundations and go "ooooh now that makes sense". While a good story, I can and do rewatch/reread millions of time even knowing they're all dead all along/the monsters are really huma/everyones an alien vampire because the plot twist is just one piece of a bigger, more riveting story that I can enjoy even knowing the twist, and I would think most creators here are trying to create a good story and not just a giant plot twist with the illusion of a story around it. It's the same difference as creating a good horror film, or creating just a string of jump scares and going "well it scared them".

jensrichard77In the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
Mar '20

Well there is more ways to enjoy a story.
In most stories it isn't that big a secret that the hero will win and don't die. That's like a everyday spoiler the audience know. But they still look forward to see HOW the hero will win and how the hero won't die.

So if someone guessed that your hero won't die and that's the polt, just play along with something like:" We don't know that yet, and if that's true.. how will the Hero manage that?"

ar-ninetysix
Mar '20

God, what a hilarious attitude to take to a reader being right.. just BANNING them

They only got to their conclusion bc they were invested in your story that much, let 'em keep reading it lol

Darth_Biomech
Mar '20
HGohwell

I'll repeat myself - there's a lot of READERS who think that way.
Hence why there is always so much drama, hate and screeching around spoilers to the popular franchises. I remember it was quite popular back in the day for trolls to troll people by posting gifs and screencaps from the camrips of Avengers Endgame, and how much anger, cursing and even legit death threats it reliably generated. You go try to tell those people that they shouldn't care about spoilers.

Cavechan
Mar '20

Hm, I don't think this has happened in my main comic yet. Though there was a time when the amazing @Azifri asked multiple questions that were answered literally 1-2 updates later. 8D

If someone guessed a plot line, I may play along, throw in fake hints or ignore it. Depends on what it is. Actually, a commentor did predict something and I did just ignore it one time. lol

I'm also surprised at some things people have NOT commented about/predicted yet. There was one thing I thought would be very obvious but nobody noticed. :slight_smile: Once we get to that reveal, I think people will be like "OHHH". But it's not for a long time yet.

Iris-Grimoire
Mar '20
jensrichard77

Basically that. It's the journey, not the destination. The big whodunnit moment isn't the cathartic moment, it's when the detective explains all the evidence and how it connects to the crime, and the person is floored at how they were bested.

azzy-m
Mar '20

I'd do the whole mind games and misleading the readers thing but I don't have the energy nor the mental capacity for it.

IndigoShirtProd
Mar '20
Darth_Biomech

I don't think that parallels to what @HGohwell was saying. The MCU is vast there was a lot keeping people invested in that storyline, not just what happened in endgame. I think what they're trying to say is that if a story only has one big plot twist, and not multiple albeit smaller revelations, then the story lacks substance. There should be more than a possible plot twist to keep people invested.

And no one said people shouldn't care about spoilers, There aren't many people who want their investment to go to waste in an offhanded, unsatisfying way. But, if fans come to the right conclusion and talk about it, it's not a spoiler.

faisalhussein394
Mar '20

If they find out, just accept it but don't confirm them to be correct, that would just expose it to everyone else.

Seriously, many author's biggest worries (including myself) is if the readers who are so invested in their work would find out but should we change it to prove them wrong?

The answer for me is "No".

Because if we do that, we're going to have start everything from scratch to avoid so many questions.

Even if they know they are correct and we continue without noticing it, then this will at least give them a satisfaction IMO.

vothnthorvaldson
Mar '20

I put both 'confirm the guess' and 'do nothing'.
It may sound paradoxical, but what I mean is if possible, I'd confirm the guess to the specific person (privately - so only if the possibility is there and the person is fine with it), but would not confirm it publicly.

This being said, my story has multiple subplots rather than a big one, and has a huge lot of foreshadowing for each subplot, so I'd say, people guessing things in advance is rather unimportant, and almost reassuring. I'm more worried that readers might get lost!

vothnthorvaldson
Mar '20
Kelheor

I'm answering as a reader: I feel there is no need to worry in these situations. The fact readers may be lead unintentionally the wrong way for a little bit, is, in my opinion, a welcome consequence of having a rich, not too linear story. I find it very immersive, because that's pretty much what happens all the time in real life: a lot of guessing and imagining relations on things that are just random chance or unrelated events.

HGohwell
Mar '20

There is a vocal minority of readers that think that way.

What happened in Endgame wasn't a plot twist. It was, as the title suggested, an ending. A real plot twist ending is something like Shutter Island or Sixth Sense, perhaps weaker but still sorta The Wickerman. Perhaps I remember wrong, but nothing I saw in Endgame was something that dramatically shifted the plot and made me look at everything that had happened so far differently. It was a painful ending, sure, but there's difference between general spoilers and plot twist spoilers. And Endgame also had, what was it in the end, 20 something movies with these characters building connections with them and hence not relying on a giant plot twist to make it interesting so actually sorta proving my point.

Plus, you didn't ask about people posting spoilers of your ending, you asked about people commenting on big plot twists in advance. There is a difference between general spoilers and plot twists. Yes, people care about spoilers, but I bet lots of those people still went to see Endgame. And how many people still watched Madoka Magica even knowing the twist premise? If anything the plot twist drew people into that.

I'm saying, once again, if knowing the plot twist ruins the entire story it wasn't a well constructed story to begin with. It's fur coat and no knickers. I would happily spoil one of my big upcoming plot twists right now and still be confident most of my readers would stick around.