I knew that was going to happen...

One of the problems I find that goes hand in hand with trying to be be original is trying to keep your story from being too predictable.

As I'm working on Tears of a Clown, I've been posting chapters on my Facebook author page. My small yet quite loyal fan base humors me with comments and questions. One in particular, has started showing me her amazing mind reading abilities by posting what she thinks is going on and what she feels is coming next. Usually, she is spot on.

This made me a little sad. I don't want to be predictable! I want people to always gasp and think "I never saw that coming!" Silly to be down about it though when the reality is that when you can't be 100% original, people are going to figure things out. Character names will differ, but more likely than not, they've seen the scenario play out before in someone else's book, probably in several other books.

I like to think I was able to keep people in the dark for a little while though and a lot of that was because even I didn't know where the story was heading until the characters led me there. On occasion, they will even surprise me and I'm their God! So to speak. Sneaky stealthy characters. It's a good thing I like 'em.

Another of my lovely little brood told me so long as she doesn't figure things out by the first five pages, she was OK with being able to figure out some plot points. I decided that it really wasn't that bad of a thing. Those who can figure it out are just well read and normally a smarty pants. A fan base who reads a lot and is brainy to boot? An author couldn't ask for much more.