Six Degrees Of Unpredictability

"Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hoped."

~ Lillian Helman

I'm not sure who Lillian Helman is (no offense, Lil) but I'm going to take her quote and run with it because this totally happened to me yesterday.


There I was, sitting at Caribou, sipping my light roast with room for cream, computer open, WIP onscreen, about to type the stunning first sentence of a new chapter, when whammo. I suddenly had a new line for the last paragraph of the previous chapter. It was a stunning  revelation from my heroine that even I didn't know about. All that to say, the story I'm working on sure isn't going to turn out as I planned. Hopefully it will be better. 


But why? Why must a story not come out as you first hoped to have it be any good? I think it has to do with predictability. Yes, I'm still on that bandwagon. 


I read once that to really surprise a reader and yourself that you need to come up with 6 solutions to your main conflict in a story. The first few will be what everyone expects. The next are warming you up for something completely different. And the last 2 are the solutions you should choose from.


There's always risk involved in leaving the most commonly traveled trail, both in life and plot-wise. But honestly, where do you see the best scenery? Which route is more memorable?