Surprise: The Secret Sauce to Life and Art

How to Break Patterns, Do the Opposite, and Lean Into Pleasure and Pain

It is the element of surprise that keeps us coming back. That keeps readers reading, audiences watching, and even friends listening. Not knowing an ending or what will happen next, reading or watching something unexpected, a twist you didn’t see, a feeling you didn’t think you’d have is one of life’s great pleasures. It scratches an itch. Why?

Photo by Alev Takil on Unsplash

Perhaps it’s because, as humans, one of our six human needs is certainty. We feel secure in knowing what to expect. The sun will come up. My dog will always love me. After winter is spring. (Please let there be spring.) But sitting right next to certainty, also at the top of our needs, is uncertainty. An overly predictable life becomes an uninspired life. We need to be surprised. Traveling to foreign countries. Changing careers, houses, hair color. Doing something uncomfortable and wild and totally out of character (skydiving or Molly or a one-night stand in Paris) for the sheer fact that you’ve never done it before. 

We must know what to expect and still have the unexpected happen. The same goes for readers. 

There is a joke in Hollywood: Give me the same, but different. Meaning we are promised specific parameters. Yes, of course, the adorable, quirky couple in the Rom-Com will be together in the end. Of course, the villain will eventually pay. But we don’t want to figure out how. This is why we trade our time for a new adventure. A series of small surprises that make life feel new. 

And that is what surprise does; it makes a promise that you will have a moment that will be new and unpredictable. A moment that makes you lean in—that makes you feel alive. 

This month, our 30-day craft challenge is Surprise: the secret sauce to all art.

Surprise is the number one thing that keeps the reader reading.

So why not use surprise more strategically in your work? 

Attend my workshop, Surprise & Strategy, this Sunday, 11/26, from 10-12 am PT for ten proven strategies to use surprise to keep your readers reading. Offered to paid subscribers.

Below are three quick tips and exercises on how to use surprise in life and art to feel more inspired. 

1. Break a pattern. 

A pattern is the repetition of something (intended or not.) Patterns help us find a rhythm. They give us structure. They also make things (including others and ourselves) predictable. When we know too much about what’s going to happen, we tune out from the experience. 

Break a pattern in life: Today, break a pattern to see how you can wake up yourself or your writing. You could leave your phone in the other room for the day. Every time you think to check it, you spend three minutes thinking about a favorite memory or breathing deeply instead. You could decide not to do what you always do and see how it feels.

Break a pattern in writing: Write about something you’ve never written about or you have told yourself is off-limits. Or maybe you list your favorite words, the ones you always use in writing and promise yourself to use none of them for a week. 

Dare yourself to be someone different (if only for three minutes) today. 

2. Do the Opposite 

Expectations are a funny thing. We are happy when they are met. But we are more impressed when something exceeds them. When our experience is something unimagined, something beyond what we thought, it makes us lean in. Hold our breath. Ask what’s next. Meaning, please surprise me. Please do what you did again, in a new way. This is why stories with open endings (The Sopranos, anyone) are discussed and debated. Because there are so many possibilities, our expectations remain open. Expanded. 

Do the Opposite in Life: Today, ask yourself, how can I do the opposite of what I expect from myself? Can I do nothing instead of powering through the to-do list?  How can I laugh about what usually infuriates me? Can I try on a new, unexpected me? 

Keep Reading for Additional Tips and a Writing Prompt on How to Use Strategic Surprise