Yes! I have totally gotten that cool mental twist when you go back and reread a well-constructed story and go, "Oh, that's what that means!" I love that feeling, and I love it when authors can do that to me. (This is another reason why I'm a spoilerphobe, I think -- because I absolutely love the mental "ping!" when things tilt and you see everything in a new light.)
I actually got that just today when I was (finally) reading Bujold's latest Vorkosigan book. I'm not sure if you've read those, so I don't know if describing the exact character/situation would make any difference. But it was a neat little "click!" moment when I finally got something she'd been doing with one of the characters, going back 20 years. It's all there, but was never spelled out, and I never got it until I finally hit just the right clue to make me realize that it had been obvious all along.
And yeah, there are many different kinds of spearpoints -- not just from the stories leading up to them, but also from various sorts of knowledge that the readers bring with them. Of course, then it's a matter of guessing what your readers know and what they don't ...
MAN. ...let's study how characters become established and emotional engagement is fostered. That seems like a good next step.
I LOVE SPECULATING ON THAT STUFF. :D
One thing I've noticed is how much I love characters to sneak up on me and surprise me. Loving a character at first sight can happen, but some of my best reading experiences have been the ones where it's taken most of a book, or even most of a series, for a character to evolve slowly from an apparent throwaway supporting character to protagonist, or to reveal enough facets that it finally makes me go, "All right, you little bastard, I actually kind of love you now." It's SO much fun to have characters sneak up on me all unexpected, so that I have to go back and reread the books to figure out how the sneaky little jerks managed to get into my heart. It seems to be a good way to get me to let my guard down, whereas having the author throw ~authorial love sparkles~ all over a character is a turnoff.
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I actually got that just today when I was (finally) reading Bujold's latest Vorkosigan book. I'm not sure if you've read those, so I don't know if describing the exact character/situation would make any difference. But it was a neat little "click!" moment when I finally got something she'd been doing with one of the characters, going back 20 years. It's all there, but was never spelled out, and I never got it until I finally hit just the right clue to make me realize that it had been obvious all along.
And yeah, there are many different kinds of spearpoints -- not just from the stories leading up to them, but also from various sorts of knowledge that the readers bring with them. Of course, then it's a matter of guessing what your readers know and what they don't ...
MAN. ...let's study how characters become established and emotional engagement is fostered. That seems like a good next step.
I LOVE SPECULATING ON THAT STUFF. :D
One thing I've noticed is how much I love characters to sneak up on me and surprise me. Loving a character at first sight can happen, but some of my best reading experiences have been the ones where it's taken most of a book, or even most of a series, for a character to evolve slowly from an apparent throwaway supporting character to protagonist, or to reveal enough facets that it finally makes me go, "All right, you little bastard, I actually kind of love you now." It's SO much fun to have characters sneak up on me all unexpected, so that I have to go back and reread the books to figure out how the sneaky little jerks managed to get into my heart. It seems to be a good way to get me to let my guard down, whereas having the author throw ~authorial love sparkles~ all over a character is a turnoff.