Either do nothing or play mindgames. I do it all the time.
Even if someone guesses wrong i'll still play mindgames with them.

I'd be like, congrats lol, you found the obvious red herring. Good luck trying to solve the real mystery. The lore is embedded so deep you might not even realize I drew it at all....coughcough

At this point most theories have been made about my comic in some form or another and so yeah it's been guessed. I usually just reply the same way I reply to people who guess wrong - "Maybe, you're just going to have to keep reading to find out"

People come up with a lot of theories in the comments for Errant. Sometimes they guess correctly, sometimes they guess incorrectly, quite often they guess a mixture, like one detail will be right on the nose, but the rest will be off.

Most often my readers ask me IF certain things will happen. I like this approach much better because I can say stuff like "That's a really good question...that I'm going to avoid answering!" Like this one from @AbelDraws

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Abel is actually very canny at noticing clues and setup I've dropped, probably one of my most perceptive readers and we share similar influences and tone to our work, so a lot of her theories are very solid, so I can't really confirm or deny them a lot of the time! All of this theorising is based on stuff that's already there: We know Sarin's going to be angry because of what's happened, we know Rekki has a hot temper and is protective of her, we know Urien is incredibly manipulative and we can infer that Sylvia is probably on her way (because why else would I set up a character and have her last seen getting up in a hurry?) so there's nothing to be petty about here and rewrite it so that Arya Stark comes out of the left field to stab Urien to death just to be surprising (YES, I am still salty about the GoT finale!) this is an engaged reader paying attention.

Comments inevitably come down to the "infinite monkeys typing out shakespeare" concept; if you have enough people theorising, by sheer probability, somebody will correctly guess the plot either by random guess or by the probability of getting readers with similar storytelling sensibility to yourself or by carefully combing for clues and patterns. So the coolest response is just to be like "Ooh, cool theory, wait and see!" and not to be sour if somebody calls it. I'm not here to try to outsmart my readers to feel superior to them; I'm here to tell them a fun story, and sometimes that means surprising them, or sometimes it means rewarding them for noticing my clues or understanding the characters. It's all good!

sike i have no commenters

There is no way I'm going to ban that poor fool who paid attention to the story, coming up with theories and accidentally got the plot twist. Banning anyone with a good theory, or erasing the comment is just the same as confirming the guess

Rewriting the plot is actually dangerous for a few reasons. It might not work with the plot you have already established, which can potentially lead to a plot hole. It can change the tone of the story that you are trying to tell. It can break the character. Also, too much work.

Misleading can be useful if you use them well . But be mindful that your viewer may have a trust issue with you afterward

Do nothing is the safest out of all given options. It works really well if you are the person who rarely interact with your audience. But if you are someone who always responds to a comment, then suddenly you don't reply to a comment, it is giving away some hints. But, your secret is still safe and you might give that fool a big joy when the twist drops.

That's my two cents. Thank you for reading my essay

I never change the plot, because unless you're reeaaaaally good at writing on the fly and making sure all the groundwork you laid down still makes sense with the new twist it never works and the reader is disappointed. Modern shows have this problem all the time. they'd rather surprise you than make sense, and a plot twist should make sense. I tend to think there's always at least one person who will get it if you've laid your groundwork (or sometimes via wild guess and "hey crack theory") but how I respond depends on the plot twist they guessed but generally things like "you'll have to wait and see" are good noncommittal answers whenever someone has a theory, right or wrong.I don't really want to lie to the readers, but I don't want to confirm something in case people reading the comments who haven't guessed it have the surprise spoiled.

I'd be thrilled if someone guessed some of the big plot twist later on tbh (later on because atm there's not enough stuff to make a solid theory ahdjgkg).

Yesterday @Chita and I were screaming in WhatsApp because she discovered a big big clue I left in the last few pages and I had a blast (I'm not gonna confirm which ones were true so hahahaha ).

My mindset when setting the story and scenes is: ok, I want to leave lots of clues and have as much visual information as my skills allow me to so that if a reader is invested they will have a lot of puzzle pieces and have fun guessing.

At the same time, I want things to be clear and understandable. I don't want to make some confusing plot twists. I'd not like my story to ever be perceived as pure shock value material x'D I think the characters and story are interesting on their own even if you know what's going to happen.

The thing is: If a reader guesses some big plot twist, I'd take a similar approach as @darthmongoose (it'd take a lot of willpower because I seriously need to learn how to keep my secrets hahahaha) and after that go give a big hug to my sis or something in excitement. It'd mean I had achieved just what I wanted <3

Leave it as it is. If they guessed your plot twist that mean you established it well. Just do not confirm and keep going with your work.

PS. When readers guess plot twist they are often satisfied by that.

basically not GOT it

@AbelDraws AAAAAAH, YOU JUST CAN'T TAG ME LIKE THAT JUST TO NOT CONFIRM ANY THEORIES (joking, I luv you. And thanks to showing me this topic!)
I think I'd do nothing. Just play dumb if someone just comes to me with a correct theory like "I know this will happen!" "Oh, will it? " which would be my reaction to all theories, wrong and right ones.
Well, to be honest, if the bigger plotwists in my story were correctly guessed at the very beggining of it when nothing has been foreshadowed in any way then I'd probably rewrite the plot just because It would be really predicable. But in any other way I'd just keep quiet and let readers do their research, feeling pretty happy when one of them discovers the truth.
@darthmongoose It's okay you're salty. I haven't even seen GOT and I'm salty about the ending

I'd acknowledge the comment (aka like and/or reply) but don't say whether they're right or wrong. So just like with any other guess in comments

Play mindgames or do nothing if I can't think of anything at the time. Responding to comments is important! But also, a non-answer sometimes might be the answer(I get enough practice tiptoeing around game spoilers with my friends, where "well I can't say anything about this" is a clear "this character gonna die"), so it's good to play cheeky a little bit and bring up the (at the time not known) red herrings.

I actually have some plans for when the plot starts proper on Splitting Image. A lot of things lead up to one conclusion, but a lot of winding paths from the multiple-answer evidence means I can just reply "can you be sure Mortimer didn't eat that bagel, he doesn't have an alibi" which is right, but at the same time, not the right thing to answer.

Also, as I recall Byelacey saying on twitter a while back, if someone figures out your plot from your clues, you're doing something right because there's a well written path to the conclusion. A story doesn't gain much from "subverting expectations", lest we become Game of Thrones; and you can't deliberately hide your clues from the audience and expect them to enjoy it when the solution comes out of nowhere (or offscreen).

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.

..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.

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?

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) _ / ¯