Think how it works in friendships. You get to know someone. You find out a bit about them; then a bit more. If they tell you too much right out of the gate, you back off. On the other hand, there must be enough information to make the friend feel secure and interested in learning more. That's exactly how books are. The best books keep revealing things until the end.
One of the things I have learned about this process is that groundwork should be laid for anything that will later be revealed as a key element of the story. It's not as though you constantly are dropping hints, but there has to be enough that when it comes as a surprise, it also is believable. Tricks don't make a reader have faith in that writer and aren't likely to lead to their seriously considering another of their books.
I have had stories where a set of facts revealed themselves throughout the book. I knew what they were but hadn't thought fully on what they meant. Suddenly it dawned on me-- this has significance and one or more of the characters must address it at least in their thoughts.
How you address it for a character means they recognize what's going on and draw the conclusion the reader has also drawn or will as soon as they hear them say it. Whether the reader came to it before the character doesn't seem important to me. What is important is they believe it even as they go-- wow, look at where that led.
The idea of tricks, of some big surprise is fine-- if it makes sense for the characters. If it's all aimed at the reader, I don't as a reader appreciate it.
Characters do act in their own best interest. Now that doesn't always mean it's wise what they do, but it will make sense at the time for their character-- even if later they go-- what was I thinking? This will vary only slightly between character or plot driven stories.
In a way a book has two audiences. One is the characters themselves. The other is the reader. The reader has to be secondary to the characters-- and no matter how slick something sounds-- a writer must make sure it's believable for those on the front-lines-- the characters.
This was driven home to me when I was editing a book which will be ePublished a little later in May-- Sky Daughter. I had my characters saying something about a certain situation and when I looked at the reality of that situation, it didn't fit their assumptions. I either had to adjust the event or their expectations-- if I wanted readers to feel good about what they had read.
When I start out with a story, I do know the outline of where it is going. I never lose sight of that. There is a plan for this, but what I don't know is all that will happen along the way. The characters, when they have a sense of reality to them, they take the story into different areas and sometimes unexpected ones. They do not take the story from me. Rather they fill it out.
Again in Sky Daughter, I saw this happening in a key situation. Every event put down a trail of crumbs to the conclusion, sometimes in ways I had let happen because these were the characters and it's what they would have done. In the end though, I felt it was important for my hero to acknowledge what it all meant which required some thought processing by him.
When something like that happens, when I find in a key element, the story was smarter than me, I am excited and it reminds me why I love to write fiction.
As with two other books, I did a trailer for Sky Daughter which is adding a lot to my enjoyment in these stories and I hope will add to reader interest in the story.
