What to Expect When Creating Expectations

Once upon a time, three brothers lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of the woods. The eldest and the middle brother had their professions chosen by their father. 

The eldest brother was a fine hunter.

The middle brother was an excellent craftsman.

Their father didn’t know what to do with his youngest son, who was intelligent, but not “extraordinary.” So, the youngest son, who happened to be called Jack, set off to seek his fortune. 

Along the way, Jack met a fellow adventurer, and they got to talking. 

“On a journey to find what you want to do in life?” she asked. “That sounds like quite the mighty burden. I wish I could help.” 

“Well, my father decided paths for my brothers, but he’s always said I’m not really ‘the best’ at anything, especially on the subjects he knows most about.”

“Curious,” The adventurer spoke in a lowered tone, seeming to understand where Jack was coming from. “And your brothers? What do they think?”

“My brothers threw themselves into studies and work. Didn’t know what to do with me past my thirteenth birthday. Really, the year I had the most to talk with them about.”

“Why do you need to be extraordinary, Jack?” the adventurer asked.

Jack glanced over at her as they walked. “Extraordinary” was the word his father always used. “I don’t know. I suppose it would be nice.”

They continued walking together from one path to the next, blindly moving through crossroads and following their instincts.  

“I’ve seen much of the world,” the adventurer said at one crossroad, “I’m not sure what my own place in it will be yet, but I think if I ever tried being extraordinary, I’d only think less of myself in the end. So, I’ll do what I like.”

Jack gave a "why not?" kind of look. “Well put. I think I’d like to think a while, try learning some things, and see what feels right.” 

Jack and the adventurer both liked the idea of exploring the world, learning new things, and trying what sounded interesting to them. These days, they own a fairly successful business. Maybe you’ll see it on your travels. It’s called  Jack and Audrey’s Independent Insurance Group & Coffee Roastery.

Well, what did you expect?

In 1926, Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, one of the most famous [and one of my favorite] pieces of literary misdirection that I have ever read. It appeals to me because it leverages my expectations of a detective novel, who its characters must be, and how I must feel about them. 

The revelation made me reinterpret and question the story. The character motivations don’t come out of nowhere. The ending is still satisfying, and I remember and feel able to discuss the story after the fact. 

Literary misdirection is a delicate tool to handle. Employ it correctly, and you’ll have created something impactful, a puzzle that will encourage readers to revisit your text through different lenses. 

Use it in the wrong place and the wrong time, and you run the risk of letting your readers down. The revelation might not matter to people, it might have been too obvious, or it might have been unearned/too sudden. 

If you’re familiar with my previous work, you’ll know that I am fascinated with the impact of myth and fairy tales. “Once upon a time…” was a tell, of course. The three brothers feature in multiple tales (Puss in Boots, as an example). Jack calls to mind the young mischief maker or, simply, the stock figure moving out of the home to seek his fortune. 

For the purposes of my story, I wanted you to believe, first, that Jack and Audrey could never be real. They could be somewhat relatable, not real. Then, I wanted that relatability to grow. Any person might wonder what their place in the world might be. 

Why should these people not be entrepreneurial? 

Playing With Expectations

Writers often compare literary misdirection with a magician’s work. The point of the magician’s show (story containing misdirection) isn’t to make the viewers (readers) look foolish. Even if people know how the trick is done (expect the twist), the enjoyment comes from the execution.  

Matthew Cheyney, author of The Last Vanishing Man and Other Stories, thinks of himself as someone who is a “seeker of patterns”. He describes the effect of misdirection beautifully: “For a storyteller, misdirection is about multiplicity, because the technique is right there if you want to look back on it. After the effect of misdirection, the reader can then reread and see both what they were led away from and what they were led to, and find pleasure in both.”

The well-executed misdirection, in this case, augments the experience of the story so that it is an experience beyond the story itself.

If you are considering using misdirection as a tool, here are some tips and pitfalls.

• Use either genre or character expectations to your advantage.  Consider what people might expect of “a” narrator, “a” character who fits a specific profile, or “a” genre before focusing on your own. While, for example, we have unreliable narrators and main characters we don’t always root for, the audience’s instinct could be to trust them and root for them until they are given a reason not to. If you’re writing a horror or a thriller, famous for their misdirection, go into this with the understanding that your audience will be looking for the threat, the monster under the bed, the neighborhood cult. Use their vigilance to your advantage.
  

• Know the difference between misdirecting and lying. Having a narrator or character who is, themselves, misdirected, misinformed, or actively creating a construction works well. Dropping a red herring or placing small clues in settings, pieces of dialogue, or in unexpected situations are all effective strategies. Outright lying would be deceiving the readers without justification or presenting inconsistencies that don’t fit in the narrative. Imagine you’re writing a mystery. The detective is interrogating a suspect, and the suspect has a story that contradicts itself. This leads the detective down a false path. That’s misdirection. If the detective has a realization that could not be true based on the story’s events, has no justification/only superficial justification, that’s a lie. Notice that I said, “Know the difference.” If you’re writing something akin to, for example, The Outsourcerer’s Apprentice, a lie might be thrown in for comedic effect. That is to say, if there’s a good reason for the lie to be there, it should be there.
  

• Make sure the misdirection is earned. An earned misdirection can be something foreshadowed, something that the narrator tried to steer their readers away from. It can even be something sudden that, for one reason or another, might not have been given proper time or consideration. For the misdirection to be earned, it should matter to the story and, in some way or another, add dimensions, change the way the story can be interpreted. There should also be some kind of aftermath. If there is a revelation, some kind of change, there should be a reaction to/acknowledgement of that change. That reaction does not need to be “expected”. It might be shockwaves, it might be little more than a nod. The revelation can also be the end of the story. The aftermath can just be empty space. Again, this is as long as your misdirection adds value to your work and what you put into it.

  
  

• Pace and Place. This, mostly, has to do with foreshadowing. If you are misdirecting, building up to your revelation, these elements matter most. “Pace” has to do with how long you’re waiting in-between clues and the time at which foreshadowing takes place. If a lot of clues enter in succession, they’ll be easy to spot. If they’re spread apart, the reveal will be slow and steady. “Place” has to do with where the clues are hidden. There will be important, pivotal moments, but give yourself more to work with. An important piece of set-up might be hidden in descriptions of settings, in a scene where characters are at rest or partaking in their hobbies. While you think all you’re doing is getting to know the characters better, one of them drops a hint in invisible ink. The graffiti that the group of friends have passed every day for years was, actually, key to finding the thief’s secret hideout. The gardener was out, saying that he was buying fertilizer. The same store happened to have sold the chemical compound that formed the murder weapon…and it happens to make a great fertilizer.
  

• Make room for multiple interpretations. This step is a little more difficult. All narratives both pose and answer questions. Will the protagonist persevere, defying family expectations for the greater good? What impact does that have on the world around them? The detective solved the case, but the guilty party committed their crime to protect someone. Tying up your story in a neat bow with all questions answered is satisfying. On the other hand, the act of misdirection usually creates more questions or answers questions in a way that feels unexpected or, intentionally, unsatisfying. If a writer isn’t careful, this can come across as heavy handed. Plot holes and inconsistencies can cause rifts in the progression of a story and undermine characters’ journeys. The act of misdirection should make your story re-readable. Your audience will look back to find your trail of breadcrumbs. Acknowledge, to yourself, that the world around your story will continue after your story’s end. Wonderland is still down the rabbit hole, and the tea party is still ongoing. Dounia, while she has found someone like-minded, is still learning to be a better judge of character. There will be lessons learned in these worlds that the readers and writers cannot be present for, and as a writer, allowing for those possibilities means that you have created a world that can be lived in.
  

Writing is a means of experimentation, meaning that not everything needs to be the way readers expect it to be. So, let yourself experiment. If it doesn't work, there will always be a way to try again. If it does, then you'll know for certain, you did what had to be done.

Do you have any questions? Are you looking for tips and tricks on literary misdirection or other writing strategies? What was the best plot twist you’ve ever read? Let us know!