I have a large collection of weird and wonderful toys collected from garage sales and op shops. Many of my early attempts at writing stories began with me photographing my toys having adventures out in the real world, assembling the photographs and then writing brief captions underneath. Then, as now, I loved trying to work out what the reader might be expecting to happen and then surprising them with something that they weren’t expecting.
For example, if a baby and Godzilla met we would probably expect Godzilla to eat the baby.
What we wouldn’t expect is for the baby to attempt to eat Godzilla.
Another surprising thing that could happen would be for Godzilla to adopt the baby …
or, even more surprising, for the baby to adopt Godzilla!
Or, perhaps most surprising of all, for them to become friends, fall in love …
get married …
and have children, half Godzilla–half human …
or half human half Godzilla!
Getting into the habit of asking, ‘How can I surprise my reader?’ will not only help you to keep your reader entertained but will also help you to come up with many more potential storylines, ideas and characters.
Note: There’s a video of Godzilla and the baby on YouTube at http://andygriffiths.com.au/links
TRY THIS
Reversals
One of the most reliable ways to surprise a reader is to use the technique of reversal. For instance, if you have a teacher and a student, we would normally expect the teacher to be in charge and the student to do what he or she is told. We would not expect the student to be in charge and the teacher to have to do what the student tells them to. This reversal of the normal order opens up all sorts of surprising story possibilities.
Try reversing each of the following scenarios. (I’ve made it easy for you … all you have to do is to change the order of the words!)
Instead of a parent telling a child what to do,
the ________ tells their ________ what to do.
Instead of a person taking their dog for a walk,
the ________ takes their ________ for a walk.
Instead of a kid trying to squash a spider, a
__________ tries to squash a ____________.
Draw a snapshot picture of each scene with speech bubble captions for each character so that we can hear as well as see them in their surprising new relationship (see Chapter 37 Snapshots, page 266).