Welcome once again, writers! Unless you’re new, you know what this is, but for those just finding this corner of the web welcome to Being a Better Writer, your weekly article series on how to improve your writing. Each week we discuss a different topic, so if you don’t like what you see up there in the title, there’s a lot more to choose from. After all, running each Monday for more than ten years makes for a significant backlog.
But for the moment we’re going to assume you’re not entering a request into that search at this exact moment looking for something else. If you are, well, you’ll probably find it. But as to this moment in time right here? We’ve got a reader request to discuss, and so we’re diving right into it.
We do have a few lines of news to drop, though, so just bear with us for a single paragraph. Axtara – Magic and Mischief (probably the final title; haven’t had anything else get close to “Mayhem”) is still in Beta, but making rapid progress. And it is a clean draft, by all indicators. Meanwhile, Part 2 of A Trial For a Dragon has released on the site! Go read it!
That’s it! I did say one paragraph. So let’s get down to business and let’s talk about this reader request. Let’s talk about reversals and subversions. Hit the jump!
Now, we’re going to start where we always start with many of these writing topics: By asking what on Earth we’re talking about. What is a reversal? What’s a subversion? What do these terms mean?
To be fair, if we don’t know what they mean, we can hardly use them in a story now can we? At least, intentionally. So what are these two terms?
Well, to start I want to note that they are not quite the same thing, which is something that sometimes people believe in error. They’re incredibly similar, but in the writing world they are actually slightly different, while covering much of the same ground.
So let’s tackle them one at a time. We’ll start with reversals. What’s a reversal? It’s actually pretty straightforward—and remember, this is in the context of writing that we’re talking about. A reversal is when a plot or story element, and this can be a character’s course, a setup, plot, whatever, make an abrupt and sudden change in direction. Like a right-angle or even a full hundred-and-eighty degree turn.
For example, we have our hero, and they’re determined to stop the wedding between the big bad and the captured member of the royal family. The hero assembles an army after proving themselves before them, makes an impassioned speech, and rides off with the army to clash with the big bad’s army and save the day. The momentum is rolling. But when they arrive at the big bad’s fortress and kick the door down, it’s empty. Turns out the big bad is carrying out their evil plan elsewhere, and the protagonist didn’t know. Oops. The direction makes an abrupt turn as instead of a big battle, you have an army frantically trying to figure out where they’re supposed to be. Cue a chase or a sudden panic as they try to pivot … but basically, instead of the battle the story was building up expecting, there’s a sudden turn brought about by new information.
Let’s do another example. Say we’ve got the big bad’s apprentice, who has hounded the hero constantly throughout a chase for a Macguffin of some kind. The apprentice is constantly taunting the hero that they can’t defeat the big bad, that with the Macguffin the big bad can be even more dangerous, yadda yadda … and then to top it off, during the final sprint for the Macguffin the apprentice beats the hero and acquires it.
Except … then the big bad doesn’t end up with it. The apprentice vanishes for a time, and when they reappear, it’s far away, now working to keep the Macguffin away from the big bad. They’re not handing it to the hero either, but something has clearly gone sideways.
That’s a reversal. There was an expected momentum and direction to the plot … and then things went a very different direction.
Now, there’s a lot of ways to use this poorly, in a way that harms the story, and we’re going to get into that. But before we do, we need to talk about the other one: subversion.
If you’re thinking “There must be a lot of overlap between the two” then you’re spot on. It’s like a Venn Diagram, with overlapping circles that are pretty heavy on the overlap, but still independent from one another.
So, what’s a subversion, then? A subversion involves tropes. Where “reversal” is about the direction of the plot or characters and making an abrupt departure from that, a subversion is about setting up a common trope or expected outcome the audience expects—not the story—and then pulling the rug out with a different direction.
Sands and Storms, see why I said those overlap but can be different from one another too? No? Okay, example first of the regular subversion, then an example of how that differentiates from a reversal.
Let’s go back to our first example with the hero raising an army and setting out to stop the big bad. That’s a pretty classic trope, seen in so many stories. So when they bash the door down at the big bad’s keep and the army isn’t there, the audience suddenly deprived of the expected big battle … that’s subverting the trope the audience is led to expect. It’s also a reversal of the momentum of the story, but it’s a trope subversion at the same time.
But what about where it’s different from a reversal? This is a bit trickier to explain, but I’m going to do my best. Let’s go with a spin on a classic. Say we have a story where the plucky young hero was an orphan, raised far away, and has now been trained by a mentor so he can stop the evil big bad. Who, by the way, was responsible for the death of his father.
The audience sees what’s coming. “Ah,” they think as the story moves on, and similarities between the hero and the big bad are noted. “We’re getting a classic ‘I am your father,’ moment. I see it coming.” The clash between the big bad and the hero arrives, the big bad utters the line “Would you like to know what really happened to your father?” … and then he informs the hero that he cut him down mercilessly, just as he will the hero.
Hold up, wait what? That’s a subversion. The trope that, to the audience, was being prepared, was for the big bad to reveal as Darth Vader did (and so many other stories mimicked to the point of it being a joke in some) that he was the protagonist’s father. But instead? Nope, he just tells the hero “Here’s how I killed him, and how I’ll kill you.”
Now I note that this could be a reversal as well if the story wasn’t set up right. If all sorts of characters had made a big deal out of “I’m sure this guy is your dad, hero,” then all of the sudden them not being that would indeed be a reversal, as well as a subversion. But if the story didn’t set that up, but just kept on trucking, the assumption being on part of the audience due to meta knowledge of plots and stories, then that is a subversion.
That’s the best line in the sand between the two. A reversal operates on the story’s internal logic. A subversion operates on meta knowledge exterior to the story, commonalities of storytelling tropes and clichés the audience is used to.
Phew! Okay, so that’s what they are. Now then comes the real trick: Using them. Which, of course, begs the question of how we can or should use them … as well as whether or not those methods can go wrong.
The latter point is the biggest risk with regards to reversals and subversions. Done well, reversals and subversions can make for some of the most memorable beats in our story, like a song that suddenly pauses for a brief moment, going silent, and them comes rushing back full of energy. Done poorly however … and a lot of your story can fall flat or even feel cheap to the reader.
So let’s talk about reversals first. How do we set up and use a reversal in our story? Make no mistake, there does need to be setup. A reversal without setup is begging for bad reviews. Without setup, the reader feels no sense of consistency, as if the story can just do what it wants.
At the same time however, and why this is hard, we don’t want to telegraph the reversal. We must build up the support structure for the reversal to exist, but if we focus on it, the reversal itself becomes obvious. We have to keep our story moving as if the reversal isn’t going to happen, right up until it does, at the same time giving our audience the bits and pieces of exposition, worldbuilding, character, etc, that they need so that when the reversal does happen, they look back at what’s come before and go “Oh dang. That makes sense.”
A long time ago (eight years, to be exact) we did a BaBW piece here on the site called Playing Out Your Puzzle Pieces, which was all about the art of giving your readers the clues they needed, but in a manner that meant they didn’t put them together until the reveal occurred. Unless they were really sharp.
A good reversal can be even tougher than a good mystery, because with a mystery we’re handing our reader clues and acknowledging them (most of them anyway), so they have an excuse to be there in the plot. But with a reversal, we need to slyly feed our audience all the supportive material needed for the reversal not to be illogical, but without the reader—hopefully—going “Oh, they’re totally setting me up for a reversal.”
Yeah. This is hard. You can’t just drop a reversal without any reason or logic behind it. Well, you could, but it wouldn’t be a good idea. A reversal without any logic given to the reader is just begging for a number of those same readers to put your book down and go read something else. But you don’t want it to be obvious you’re setting up a reversal either. You have to carefully hide the information that supports it within information that instead acts as though everything is going according to plan.
Yeah, hard! No other way to put it. Because again, if you don’t setup for the reversal, you’re left with a reversal that feels not just like a rug-pull, but a cheap change that doesn’t line up with the established characters/setting/plot.
Occasionally I’ve seen stories that have done very poor or just outright reversals. Pulling 180s for the reason of “Let’s shake the story up” or “Here’s a good place to shake the story up” without setting up any logic behind it. The result is always a crash and burn, the audience leaving in droves … even when the creator realizes their mistake and then tries to backfill in “Oh, but made sense because of this bit I hadn’t told you.”
Don’t do that.
So, are you planning on writing a reversal? Figure it out in advance, well before the moment arrives if possible, and then determine what details the audience needs to know for that reversal to work. Then, as you go through the story as normal, be sure to dole those bits out. Carefully, since we don’t want our audience to realize what’s about to happen if possible, but they need to be there. So that when the big reversal arrives, the story supports it already.
Okay, enough about reversals. Let’s talk about the other side of the things, across that line. Let’s talk about subversions and how we use them in our story.
Okay, here’s the thing: I’m of the opinion that subversions are a lot harder to pull off for a few specific reasons. First is that they’re subversions of tropes and audience metaknowledge, which means that in order to be successful, we must correctly anticipate what the audience is going to expect. We have to know our audience really well.
In addition, we need to be familiar with the “meta” of stories at the moment. What do people expect? What’s currently trendy? The other day, I had a discussion with a friend about how right now one of the constant meta “subversions” in superhero films is “villain of the week is angry about being a villain of the week and decides to prove they’re more than that.” I joked that this was so expected, despite originally being a subversion itself, that now the subversion would be the hero acknowledging said villain and doing their best to make them feel appreciated even if they’re not exactly a big threat. Respectful, in other words.
But that’s only a subversion because of what the current “meta” of storytelling has swung to. Which introduces additional difficulties then, in subverting audience metaknowledge: Some of it is time-based. Not all, but some of it is. The example above is only a subversion as long as the audience has grown used to the idea of the “villain of the week being unhappy at being called that.” Once that trend is over, it’s a subversion of the trope, but the audience’s knowledge may or may not have the idea firmly fixed in their mind.
In other words, subversions can be topical, which means they can end up out-of-date as the years move on.
There are other risks to subversions as well. If the audience recognizes the tropes and setups that you’re preparing to subvert, but doesn’t expect them to be subverted, they may set your story down because “Oh, I’ve read that before.” They may even grow unhappy if they later find out that they judging things to quickly.
These aren’t reasons not to do subversions, mind. They’re risks. Risks you’ll have to take. And depending on the subversion, the risks may be more or less apparent. Hoping for readers to have a knowledge of really common tropes of your genre? That’s a safe bet. Esoteric tropes from another genre you’re blending in? A bit riskier.
All well and good, but what about using a subversion? How do we write one into our story?
Well, as with reversals, we need to do the setup. The catch being that some of the setup is “I expect the audience to see this using meta knowledge.” Sometimes our setup may even be building allusions to that meta knowledge, like crafting a scenario between the hero and the big bad above that is very similar to the classic “I am your father” buildup in order to goad your reader into making the parallels themselves.
So story setup yes, but also a bit of meta setup. Our story still needs to make sense when the subversion hits, so it can’t be out of nowhere. We need to lay out our puzzle pieces properly. But we also need to keep in mind that with a subversion, we’re hoping that the audience is bringing a few pieces of their own and looking to see what looks like our puzzle pieces. In order to create the subversion, you’re effectively going to have to acknowledge to yourself and plan for what pieces the audience is expected to bring to the table.
I realize how odd this sounds, but there is a silver lining: If your story is good even if someone with no meta knowledge reads it, then you always have that to fall back on. Setting up a subversion can still be a goal, and something for your primary audience, but you should never have a story where if the audience doesn’t come with the meta knowledge to see the subversion they cannot enjoy it.
Take Megamind. It’s full of subversions—clever and intelligent—for a viewer that understands them. But even if you’re not in the know about those tropes, it still delivers a good, compelling story. To put it another way, our audience if not in the know should just see the subversions as twists. Or reversals.
Outside of that, the same general rules apply. There needs to be a logic, you need your setup, and there you have it.
Whew. I know this is far from the longest BaBW topic we’ve ever had, but it felt heavy all the same. Packed down. But there you go: Reversals and subversions. Remember, the most important bit about either is that setup. You cannot have one of these elements just “arrive” with zero preparation. Your audience should be able to look at what happened, look back, and then go “Oh yeah, that tracks.”
It’s hard. I won’t deny that. There’s a reason stories that do either well tend to gather glowing reviews to that effect. It’s a difficult thing to do.
But done well, in the right story? It can be a moment your readers remember forever.
Good luck. Now get writing.
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