Ruminations of an Old Goat

Even though this column is going to start with a sports story, it's really about writing. Trust me.

In the late 1990s, Clemson University hired a new head football coach. Coming off of a horrible, three-win season (out of 11 games), hopes were high that the new coach would make things interesting. Early in the season, playing on the road again a team ranked in the top five in the nation, Clemson was losing 14 - 3 late in the second quarter. The offense had struggled but finally put together a good drive that stalled inside the opponent's 10 yard line. Clemson's kicking game was so unsteady that even a chip-shot field goal such as this one was far from a sure thing. Still, Clemson lined up for the field goal then surprised everyone by faking the field goal and passing for a touchdown. It was a great call by the coach with great execution by the team. The thing about surprise plays is that they only work if the other team is surprised. With the shaky kicking game, Clemson attempted a lot more fake field goals during the season. Fakes were so common I found myself yelling at the TV, "Come on,if you want to really fool the other team, don't run a fake field goal!"

So, what's the point behind the story and what does it have to do about writing? The football point is that you're not going to surprise the other coach if even casual fans know when you're going to attempt a "surprise" play. The writing point is that you, the writer, can get away with one big, non-telegraphed surprise in your story without your readers getting irritated at you. If you've got a longer story and handle it really well, you might be able to get away with a second such surprise. Maybe. But the pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat type of surprise shouldn't be used much -- preferably a lot less than once per story -- otherwise your readers are going to find themselves more distracted by trying to figure out the next surprise than by following the story. In the long run, that's going to cost you readers or, worse, sales.

Instead of complete surprises, I'd recommend setting the reader up for the revelation. Your readers will appreciate it, though some of those readers will still be surprised by the revelation you've been hinting at chapter after chapter. Back when I was writing the Southern Knights comic book, I introduced a new villain in issue four. She appeared off an on over the next several issues. Each time, I dropped at least one hint as to the true nature of the villain. I know readers were picking up on the hints because I received letters from fans making accurate guesses as to that nature. When we finally revealed the villain's nature in issue 13, I received letters from other fans who claimed the revelation came out of no where and claiming I should have telegraphed something so big.

You don't have to do much to telegraph the surprise, just enough that you've put the idea in the heads of (most of) your readers. Think about the movie Star Wars. As the movie progresses, Luke Skywalker, a farm boy, shows he has a deft hand with a blaster and is also quite a talented pilot. Had Skywalker just turned up with those skills, the audience would have had to do some major suspension of disbelief to accept them. But early in the movie we see Luke carrying a rifle when he heads out after R2-D2. Later, Obi-Wan says to Luke, "I understand you've become quite a good pilot, yourself." Just like that, the seed is planted in our minds that Luke can shoot a blaster and pilot a spaceship. When he actually does those things, we're primed to accept it.

You can also setup certain skills and talents simply by what your character does for a living. No one is surprised that James Bond is an expert with firearms of all kinds, is a skilled pursuit driver and a deadly hand-to-hand fighter. We expect these things and more because he is a secret agent. There's no need to provide advance hints about those skills. But can you imagine Bond settling in at a desk to go through a double-entry accounting ledger in search of elusive bookkeeping tricks? Bond is a man of action. MI-6 has amazingly beautiful female operatives to handle the accounting. But if you really need Bond to be the guy checking the ledger, you'd better drop a hint before hand about how his expense reports always fool MI-6's accountants into paying his rent each month or something else that indicates strong knowledge of accounting.

No matter how you choose to write your story -- either with a detailed outline, simply figuring things out as you go or something in between -- it's vital that you know what your characters can and will do. That way you can prepare your readers for any unusual talents your character might display. It's always much easier to do that kind of thing during the first draft and not need it than it is to need it and have to go back and find a place to add it. Put another way, it's harder to add elements to a story when editing than it is to remove them.

All these hints I've been talking about require only a few sentences here and there in your story. But they'll result in more believable characters, ones who don't just suddenly know a skill at the exact moment they need it. You just can't get away with that very often. Unless you're Chuck Bartowski or have the Intersect 2.0 in your head.