Do you like to be surprised?

[Deadman]

I have a chapter of a story I’m going to be posting soon. Towards the middle I introduced a character that I wasn’t sure I would put in.

But I ended up doing it and now I’m wondering if I should spoil the surprise in the description for the chapter. Part of me thinks it would make people more willing to read it if they know about the surprise ahead of time. At the same time, the surprise is kinda fun. Plus the character who would otherwise be featured if I keep it a surprise, wouldn’t be as enticing for someone to read.

So I’m wondering if you like to be surprised?

 

[Desiderius Price]

I refrain from spoilers… let the readers discover it as they read.  Now, you can lay down a hint for the more clever folks, but I’d be annoyed if the author “spoiled” the plot TBH.

[Deadman]

28 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

I refrain from spoilers… let the readers discover it as they read.  Now, you can lay down a hint for the more clever folks, but I’d be annoyed if the author “spoiled” the plot TBH.

Yeah, maybe that’s best. I could probably add in something like talking about a “special guest” in the description.

[Desiderius Price]

24 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Yeah, maybe that’s best. I could probably add in something like talking about a “special guest” in the description.

TBH… I usually don’t do much for chapter descriptions.  There’s the story summary… and maybe a good cliffhanger.

[Deadman]

1 hour ago, Desiderius Price said:

TBH… I usually don’t do much for chapter descriptions.  There’s the story summary… and maybe a good cliffhanger.

Well it’s partly in reference to my Scooby Gang Time story. Each story isn’t connected to the previous one. So I have a general story summary, but when I post that I’ve updated my story here on the forum, I try to add a description of what the chapter is about and the characters in it. That way people know, okay this chapter features this character who I like, I’m going to read that. Whereas the next one with this other character, I won’t. I don’t actually know that’s the way they’re thinking, but I assume that in how I post here on the forum.

[Desiderius Price]

Aw, was assuming a single story.  Summaries for oneshots is appropriate, obviously don’t spoil the entire oneshot in the summary.  Nothing irks me more than youtube demanding to spoil a show’s season I’ve yet to watch

[Deadman]

16 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

Aw, was assuming a single story.  Summaries for oneshots is appropriate, obviously don’t spoil the entire oneshot in the summary.  Nothing irks me more than youtube demanding to spoil a show’s season I’ve yet to watch

Yeah, generally speaking I would agree with you. I try to avoid spoilers where I can. I don’t even necessarily like to have trigger warnings on stories. Occasionally if I think something serious happens, I will say “bad things are about to happen”, but I won’t say exactly what. Though if you’re following the story up to that point, it’s probably fairly obvious what’s going to happen. If I’m writing properly anyway.

[BronxWench]

I generally don’t mind surprises in stories, but I will say, there are certain kinks I avoid diligently when reading for pleasure because, well, they’re not pleasant for me. So, while I wholeheartedly endorse not spoiling a good surprise, I do like to see trigger tags because those sorts of surprises are not enjoyable in the slightest.

[Deadman]

8 minutes ago, BronxWench said:

I generally don’t mind surprises in stories, but I will say, there are certain kinks I avoid diligently when reading for pleasure because, well, they’re not pleasant for me. So, while I wholeheartedly endorse not spoiling a good surprise, I do like to see trigger tags because those sorts of surprises are not enjoyable in the slightest.

I can understand that you want to avoid certain things. Though to do a call back to another conversation we had, part of the problem with AO3 for me is that I had a hard time avoiding certain tags.

In the case of what I’m talking about, I don’t think a new kink is introduced. Based on the tags for the story on AFF, it’s not new. What’s different is that for the first half of the story, it looks like one character is going to be at the centre. But towards the middle of the story, a character interrupts the fun being had and joins in. The first character stays throughout the one shot.

If I’m writing the summary for the one shot, I wonder about including the second character in the description. Though I’m thinking instead of just adding to the description something about a “special guest” entering.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Deadman

[Desiderius Price]

24 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Yeah, generally speaking I would agree with you. I try to avoid spoilers where I can. I don’t even necessarily like to have trigger warnings on stories. Occasionally if I think something serious happens, I will say “bad things are about to happen”, but I won’t say exactly what. Though if you’re following the story up to that point, it’s probably fairly obvious what’s going to happen. If I’m writing properly anyway.

On this archive (or AO3), always, always list trigger tags.  While yes it’s technically a spoiler, you don’t want to surprise your readers  with a “surprise” rape scene or something.

[Desiderius Price]

1 minute ago, Deadman said:

I can understand that you want to avoid certain things. Though to do a call back to another conversation we had, part of the problem with AO3 for me is that I had a hard time avoiding certain tags.

In the case of what I’m talking about, I don’t think a new kink is introduced. Based on the tags for the story on AFF, it’s not new. What’s different is that for the first half of the story, it looks like one character is going to be at the centre. But towards the middle of the story, a character interrupts the fun being had and joins in.

If I’m writing the summary for the one shot, I wonder about including the second character in the description. Though I’m thinking instead of just adding to the description something about a “special guest” entering.

In some fandoms, tagging the relationship’s crucial too.  So, maybe add that new warning in (quietly) for the entire story?  Hopefully the readers forgot about it until the scene/chapter?

[Deadman]

8 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

In some fandoms, tagging the relationship’s crucial too.  So, maybe add that new warning in (quietly) for the entire story?  Hopefully the readers forgot about it until the scene/chapter?

Yeah, it’s not so much a pairing, though I guess it sorta becomes one? I’ve actually never seen this pairing in any of the fandom anywhere. Though as I’ve said, I don’t spend a lot of time on AO3. Maybe it’s there and I haven’t seen it.

The first character is not well liked by the fandom generally. Whereas the second character is usually liked though I know of a few who don’t like them. Like I said, it’s not so much of a pairing. In Scooby Gang Time, it’s all about the group scenarios. So the first character kinda initiates a group scenario for themselves, the second character walks in on what’s happening and decides to join in on the group situation. Not necessarily a pairing.

Though by the end of the story, I felt the need to leave a tease for a “spinoff” of sorts. Which I’m definitely going to write now. In that, there will be something of a pairing, but again not in a one on one scenario.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Deadman