Reader Expectations v. Character Motivations

I think reader expectations depend a lot on how the book is marketed, rather than the actual book itself.

Using your cake/secret door idea...if it's marketed as women's fiction/chicklit/whatever, I'd expect the heroine to bake a cake and obsess about shoes.

If it was marketed as Urban Fantasy, I'd expect her to open the supersekrit magicks trapdoor and discover a different world.

This is why covers and 'which genre shelf the book is placed on in Borders' are so important.

Awesome question, I think.

Personally, I don't go on and on about the cake then. I also hide a lot of things from my MC [I'm doing omni] that the reader knows 'cos I think that's fun. But I try to juxtapose the hints with something kind of awesome to read on its own.

Betas say they like it, but I'm unpublished, WIP, so take it with a grain of salt

Stunted said:

What are your thoughts on the interaction between reader expectations verses character motivation? So, to clarify, let's say that in the first scene of the novel, the MC is trying to make a cake, but can't find enough flour, and, in her search, finds a mysterious door underneath her pantry. The reader knows, maybe because of the back of the book or just by the way the scene is written, that behind the door, there's all kinds of magic and mayhem awaiting our MC. The reader wants to know what's behind the door, but doesn't really care about the outcome of the cake, and the character doesn't give a shit about the door, but is preoccupied with baking.

Another example of this would be if an MC meets his/her love interest and doesn't think much of him/her at the time, but the reader knows that they will eventually have some kind of romantic conflict?

Can you think of examples of this in fiction? Have you ever done something like this in your work? What are your thoughts on the issues? Can you have a scene that rides on reader expectations alone? Discuss.

Click to expand...

I was actually thinking about this recently for two reasons. One, I was writing my query letter, which made me think about what information someone might end up writing for a back of the book blurb, and therefore what kind of expectations readers might have going in. (I'm only a couple chapters into the WIP, about to reveal a big secret of one my MCs. Chances are, though, a reader would already know the MC's secret after reading a blurb or similar.)

Second, I watched the pilot for Flash Forward, and thought some of it felt rushed. But a lot of what was rushed were the parts the viewer probably knew anyway from watching the commercials--that everyone on the planet blacked out at the same time and saw their future. To me, this is a pretty major concept that deserved more time to explore, but then again the core of the story is not the event that made everyone black out but what people do now they know their futures.

I don't know if someone else would have accepted the same flaws in the story like I did if they hadn't seen the commercials and therefore didn't know what to expect. But the only reason I let it slide was precisely because it wasn't the core of the story... it was really just setup. I don't think you can rely on expectations for something really essential to the core story.

Also, I think movies/tv might get more leeway than a novel when it comes to viewer/reader expectations just based on the way they're marketed. Obviously television/movie and novel writing differ, but in both cases, as the writer, there's no guarantee what the marketers (either the people who cut the commercial or the person who writes your back of the book blurb) will include. So you should still be writing every scene to its fullest potential.

Admittedly, I sometimes keep reading a book because, maybe the opening hasn't grabbed me yet, but I still want to follow through with what the back of the book has promised.

CheshireCat said:

What Scarlet said.

Click to expand...

Quoted just to show someone agreed with me.

What it is ...

Let's say your heroine, Matilda, has just spotted a large, mysterious stranger acoming through the rye.

You, the writer, want to get the 'large-mysterious-frightening-stranger' feeling down on paper
because that's your story action.
That's the skritch of chalk on the board.
That's the trickle of fear down the spine.

Your ability to put the reader in that oh-my-god-what-is-going-to-happen-next place
is already hampered by your own writerly knowledge that Matilda will be climbing into the sack with large-mysterious-stranger in about 20,000 words.

Don't defuse tension by signaling that this is the hero.
Don't say, "Ohh. Oh. That's a secret door door door behind the closet."

Keep the cat in the bag.
Even if the cover copy clearly reveals cat-out-of-bag.

One way to stay in the moment and build such suspense as remains to you after the cover artists are done
is to kick any consideration of 'reader expectation' entirely out of your head when you are doing the first draft
and concentrate on what the characters are experiencing.

When you surprise your characters with what comes next,
you may also bamboozle, mislead, shock and confound your readers.

Stunted said:

The reader wants to know what's behind the door, but doesn't really care about the outcome of the cake, and the character doesn't give a shit about the door, but is preoccupied with baking.

Click to expand...

Perfect example of creating suspense. Yes there is something behind the door, and the reader is dying to find out. Perhaps, if he thinks it is something evil, he doesn't want the heroine to open the door; but of course he knows she will eventually.
The premise that the character is obsessed with her baking and not the door makes this even more interesting.

How a writer sets this up is the skill of the writer; Creating a need in a reader for wanting, or not wanting, something to happen, that is what we all aim for or should.

I think I read somewhere some famous writer or someone said 'Whatever the reader wants - let them wait.'

Or something like that. I think that feeds into the building of tension, the showing a reader a glimpse than taking it away again. In the example given, I think having the MC so engrossed in the baking the door goes almost completely out of his mind would work, if true to the character. I would say don't give the reader everything they want on a plate - let them wait a bit.