Most of them are crap.
there, I said it.
Rarely do they work in a story, unless you are a master in characterization, pacing, and character motivation.
the Authors just antagonize their readers with either all-knowing baddies, "look-how-evil-I-am" beard-strokes or spoiling future plot points that the MC doesn't know of yet.
Or they are so badly integrated, that the MC just looks incompetent while the reader knows all the secrets.
So I either write crap or I'm a master in characterization, pacing, and character motivation. Well then, thank you, I guess.
So what are the good points about:
*look-how-evil-I-am*
*omnipotent know-it-alls just playing with the MC*
*spoiling future plot points*
Excluding part-of-the-cast baddies like Game of Thrones.
So what are the good points about:
All are a form of gloating. The author can use statements like those to set up the gloater, just before the MC takes down the gloater in a way that is not expected.
Protagonist is about to turn the key on his car's ignition. There's a car bomb planted. The reader gasps. Holds his breath. Cringes.
Wait!
Why would there being any suspense for the reader? Well, because of an earlier chapter where the antagonist planted the bomb.
I would be seriously pissed as a reader if the bomb malfunctioned for whatever reason and all the suspension was for nothing. Especially if it is a story without major character deaths, where you know that the MC has plot armor. The whole bomb plot would have been wasted space. (as told from the antagonists viewpoint, it would have been different if we wouldn't have known about the bomb and we and the MC only discover the fact later.
it would have been different if we wouldn't have known about the bomb and we and the MC only discover the fact later.
That's a different story.
Alfred Hitchcock once explained the difference between surprise and suspense.
Surprise is when people are eating in a restaurant and a bomb goes off.
Suspense is when the you know the bomb will go off at noon and you're watching the clock tick toward noon.
And what is "the bomb never goes off after watching the clock tick toward noon" called?
Blueballs?
And what is "the bomb never goes off after watching the clock tick toward noon" called?
Relief
Once saw an actual execution video where they had the prisoner strapped to an electric chair in a room by himself with his eyes uncovered where he could see a clock. Now that's suspense.
Once saw an actual execution video where they had the prisoner strapped to an electric chair in a room by himself with his eyes uncovered where he could see a clock. Now that's suspense.
And if the executioner has a heart attack and falls on the switch early. That's surprise.
It's irony if the executioner has the heart attack because he's wound up and the phone rings because the Governor calling to give a reprieve.
It's irony if the executioner has the heart attack because he's wound up and the phone rings because the Governor calling to give a reprieve.
Or the Governor calls in a last minute reprieve due to heroics by the CSI team/Mentalist/etc then the prisoner dies of a heart attack.
AJ
Lol the poor slob doesn't stand a chance around us.
I'm sure we'd give him a Second Chance reincarnated as a 14yo boy with a couple of sexy and willing sisters ;)
AJ
How about a little Karmic justice?
He actually was a rapist and comes back as a teen girl in a strange city...
He actually was a rapist and comes back as a teen girl in a strange city...
He comes back as a teen girl in the same city, one of his own rape victims ...
AJ
He comes back as a teen girl in the same city, one of his own rape victims ...
so she knows what is going to happen... unless she does something...
(par for the course for Do-overs)
but she can't tell the police... he is a police officer....
she can't tell her parents... because he is her father...
My mother, the senior consultant in her school system department of child guidance and mental health, came back from lunch one day to find chaos. Uniformed and plainclothes police apparently had just arrived. Secretaries were near-hysterical.
When she inquired what was going on, the office manager blurted something about "he's so outrageous and insulting to say it out loud!" and waved one of those pink "While you were out" telephone forms.
Mom looked at it, recognized the number, and sighed. "That's not from the rapist, dear. It's from her therapist."
spoiling future plot points that the MC doesn't know of yet.
That depends on the way the story is written and the point of view being used. If the story is in the first person then the MC can only know about what they do, are told, or see. However, if there is a change of character with a change of scene then the author can introduce information that the MC doesn't know. Also, with 3rd omni view point it's easy to have another character doing something the MC doesn't know about.
Obviously, a good author can make these scenes work. But I generally agree with sunkuwan -- they break the flow of narration, and often serve as heavy foreshadowing.
I prefer to discover things along with the main character.