“Keep me awake.”
A craft article by Richard C. McPherson
Every writer develops a story or novel crafting big, well-planned surprises for the reader, what I call tectonic surprises: the sudden death of a character, the unexpected betrayal, or the arrival of an armada of aliens. We develop surprises to propel and shape the arc and outcome of our stories. But there is real value in surprises that are small, even tiny, what I call micro-surprises.
What are micro-surprises and how do they help us write better fiction?
While writing my novel, Man Wanted in Cheyenne, my wife commented that she was often surprised by something a character said, or an unexpected gesture. I realized I had been trying to enrich each character by showing the internal contradictions we all carry around. An angry word from a reliably controlled person, a cynical jibe from someone sweet, would fill out a character and avoid the dreaded one-dimensional character who exists only for the story’s (the writer’s!) convenience.
I adopted an exercise in the revision process where I hunted through dialog like a slasher, pouncing on characters’ conversations with murder in my heart. I would slay the predictable. I experimented with characters who said things that were odd or outrageous, or at least unexpected. You can guess the result: I began to revel in these little surprises to the point of excess. Some of my exchanges were too far out of character, others so interesting they became a distraction. Most of the micro-surprises died swiftly by my own hand or were exposed by a great editor (Jen Knox).
But…
In one case I played with a “minor” character, in whom I had little stake and mistakenly assumed the readers would feel the same way. I wrote passages - never intended for publication - of experimental, surprise-laden dialog, allowing a minor character to generate emotional responses from the two main characters. My minor character didn’t change the storyline or outcome, but revealing his quirks and contradictions through dialog improved my book in two ways: It helped readers understand my protagonist’s depths and humanity, as he reacted to these micro-surprises. It also helped readers inhabit a setting unfamiliar to most, a big Western cattle ranch. This minor character became one of the most frequently mentioned to me by readers.
Writers are told to experiment with alternate paths, disregarding the inevitable cutting. For me, that usually meant considering big plot shifts or other seismic developments. After I descended from the lofty heights of “writing a novel” and allowed myself time to linger over small talk with a minor character, I found a new freedom. Unexpected “little” things made my writing world bigger.
If we want to surprise the reader, we first must surprise ourselves.
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For a more extensive, far more brilliant, and much funnier dive into this topic, turn to Pity the Reader - On Writing with Style, (2019, Seven Stories Press), by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell. Vonnegut stressed, “Surprise me,” adding, “Don’t be predictable. End your sentences with something unexpected. Keep me awake.” Isn’t that the one true dream of every writer?
Learn more about Richard C. McPherson here. Dispatches from the Board and general craft articles are open to suggestions from you! What topics do you want to hear about? Let us know at info@unleashcreatives.com