Creative writing: Does it have to be a box?
Be unpredictable and it won’t just be you who’ll enjoy your writing more, says Steven Chapman
Thinking outside the box goes by many names in the creative world: taking the road less travelled, lateral thinking, a shift in the paradigm... whatever you call it, the ability to keep your readers on their toes is one of the most useful tools in your author’s toolbox.
A lot of writers tend to follow the norms of plotting – which makes sense to a certain extent. After all, it can be scary to differ from the norm, and lucrative to stick to it. As soon as a novel becomes a hit, shops are inundated with similar titles and plots, books boasting almost identical covers in an attempt to cash in on the Next Big Thing, proving that resorting to the Same Old Thing can be beneficial to your bank balance. But by playing it safe, by only working with what you know best, you run the risk of boring your readers. It’s understandable; there’s comfort in the familiar, and with comfort comes easy writing. But since when was writing supposed to be easy?
On the other hand, there are authors who attempt to constantly pull the rug out from under their reader’s feet, who choose to relentlessly use shock and awe techniques, doling out death and disbelief in order to surprise with supposedly unexpected twists. The trouble is this technique has been used so much recently that readers expect the deaths of main characters, or attempts at shock endings, as much as clichéd, done-a-hundredtimes-before storylines. There are only so many times you can pull that rug before the reader goes and stands somewhere else.