Misdirection

(I swear this isn't a post about my book by the same name... but my thoughts on this are exactly why I wrote that book).

I HATE reading a book where you know what's going to happen before you get to the end. Hate it. I don't mean know the ending like knowing that in a romance novel the characters will end up together. I mean when you see the big surprise coming from a mile away. The sudden twist at the end.

Not all books have twists, and that's fine. But you shouldn't be able to predict the whole plot of a book from the first few pages. I want to be surprised and amazed and confused.

I mean, obviously, my overwhelming intelligence (and oh so impressive modesty) makes this difficult. *snerk* But there are so many books out there where I have been surprised, or at least not seen the entire plot coming. So it's clearly possible.

It doesn't have to be a major twist, like revealing that the narrator is the murderer, a la Agatha Christie (um, spoiler?). I just feel like sometimes when teachers cover foreshadowing in grade school that future authors grab it and run with it and then fill their books with it to the point that it completely ruins any possible surprise that may be coming.

This is where misdirection comes into play. I mean, if you're going to drop hints about what's coming, drop some wrong hints too. Make the author think you're headed one way and then careen in a different direction. Shake things up a bit. Lay the groundwork for many possibilities and then let the reader scramble to try and figure out which way you're actually going.

Of course, like anything, this too can be overdone. If you try too hard to misdirect, your reader winds up never really know what's going on, with too many possibilities and dangling plot points. Tie things up neatly, people.

So, in short, please try to make your book interesting to me. That is all.