Subversion of expectations

[NudeBaG]

A common (and disappointing) theme I’ve seen lately is the ‘subversion of expectations’ trope.
Sometimes, what is expected is what is wanted.
Just deliver the expected outcome as best you can.
No one will be disappointed.
If you’re writing for yourself, that’s one thing.
But if you write in response to readers’ input, don’t be mad when they feel slighted.
I feel like we’re all (generally) pretty supportive.
So why not try and reward that support?

[SDS]

I get the annoyance, you read a story you think it's going to be your perfect cup of tea... and instead the author goes another direction or has a quirky unsatisfying ending in your opinion.

However! You got to remember that we all write for ourselves 'mostly', this is not a job and although the readers are our audience they are not actually our customers. Many stories I have ended up adapting or writing somthing similar becuase I loved the idea but not the final outcome or direction the author decides on. Only stories you write yourself will happen exacly like you want.

However ultimately it is the authors choice and we should be happy for them. Even if it's not exacly what each of us might want it's much better than an empty storyboard or bland AI slop stories with are paint by numbers tropes.

With Love SDS

[NudeBaG]

I get the annoyance, you read a story you think it's going to be your perfect cup of tea... and instead the author goes another direction or has a quirky unsatisfying ending in your opinion.

However! You got to remember that we all write for ourselves 'mostly', this is not a job and although the readers are our audience they are not actually our customers. Many stories I have ended up adapting or writing somthing similar becuase I loved the idea but not the final outcome or direction the author decides on. Only stories you write yourself will happen exacly like you want.

However ultimately it is the authors choice and we should be happy for them. Even if it's not exacly what each of us might want it's much better than an empty storyboard or bland AI slop stories with are paint by numbers tropes.

With Love SDS

Absolutely see your point
And I did point out that writing for oneself is fine.
But a lot of times, we also see ‘what do you think should happen next?’
In that instance, you’re kind of leaning on the audience

[Freesub]

I get the annoyance, you read a story you think it's going to be your perfect cup of tea... and instead the author goes another direction or has a quirky unsatisfying ending in your opinion.

However! You got to remember that we all write for ourselves 'mostly', this is not a job and although the readers are our audience they are not actually our customers. Many stories I have ended up adapting or writing somthing similar becuase I loved the idea but not the final outcome or direction the author decides on. Only stories you write yourself will happen exacly like you want.

However ultimately it is the authors choice and we should be happy for them. Even if it's not exacly what each of us might want it's much better than an empty storyboard or bland AI slop stories with are paint by numbers tropes.

With Love SDS

Absolutely see your point
And I did point out that writing for oneself is fine.
But a lot of times, we also see ‘what do you think should happen next?’
In that instance, you’re kind of leaning on the audience

That I agree with, if you're actively courting ideas and opinions from the audience, that's very different to simply posting your story and letting people react to it.

[Executionus]

The modern obsession with subverting expectations famously destroyed the last two seasons of Game of Thrones and has been a general problem among actual professional writers for many years now. It's going to show up here from time to time as writers chicken out of an ending or event because a comment predicted it ahead of time and things like that. From my point of view, a well-written story SHOULD lend itself to events and moments being predicted because that displays that the characters and settings involved are well-defined enough for the plot to flow naturally and not require forcing. Forced illogical plot swerves are the worst, so don't be a Vince Russo by becoming synonymous with the trope.

[NudeBaG]

The modern obsession with subverting expectations famously destroyed the last two seasons of Game of Thrones and has been a general problem among actual professional writers for many years now. It's going to show up here from time to time as writers chicken out of an ending or event because a comment predicted it ahead of time and things like that. From my point of view, a well-written story SHOULD lend itself to events and moments being predicted because that displays that the characters and settings involved are well-defined enough for the plot to flow naturally and not require forcing. Forced illogical plot swerves are the worst, so don't be a Vince Russo by becoming synonymous with the trope.

Well said

[dublinjohn]

....
But a lot of times, we also see ‘what do you think should happen next?’
....

Generally that means (with a very small percentage of exceptions) that the story will never be completed

[Dormouse]

I've had comments say that such and such a scene should have gone differently; that would have made it a different story to what I wanted to write.

I've also had stories that I thought had reached a satisfactory conclusion only for a clamour of what happens next. I once wrote a story where after what I thought was a good place to stop, I outlined three continuations I had no intention of writing, one of which had the world ending following a meteorite strike.

[superevil7]

The modern obsession with subverting expectations famously destroyed the last two seasons of Game of Thrones and has been a general problem among actual professional writers for many years now. It's going to show up here from time to time as writers chicken out of an ending or event because a comment predicted it ahead of time and things like that. From my point of view, a well-written story SHOULD lend itself to events and moments being predicted because that displays that the characters and settings involved are well-defined enough for the plot to flow naturally and not require forcing. Forced illogical plot swerves are the worst, so don't be a Vince Russo by becoming synonymous with the trope.

[RaccoonBatteryStaple]

From my point of view, a well-written story SHOULD lend itself to events and moments being predicted because that displays that the characters and settings involved are well-defined enough for the plot to flow naturally and not require forcing.

And following from that, if there is a subversion it should be because the story elements all point so strongly toward an event that the consumer should rightly be able to predict it by its very obviousness.

My favorite example of this was South Park's handling of the "Who is Eric Cartman's Father?" storyline. This was a huge thing when I was in college, my friends threw a watch party and everything and about 5 minutes before the show I said "Hey, they've hyped this SO much and it's April Fool's, I bet it's a fakeout" and everyone said I was nuts. Five minutes later they were throwing things at the TV because I was absolutely right, they showed a one-off Terence & Phillip episode instead (which I loved btw).