Spoliers Improve Audience Enjoyment

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2011/08/18/spoiler-alert-if-you-know-the-ending-you-might-enjoy-the-story-more/

You can follow the link back to the article, and perhaps back further to the actual study, but it seems that there is a statistically significant positive effect on reader enjoyment if they know the ending in advance.

This brings up a few issues in terms of writing.

The main thing is plot physics. That is, a story should move in a predictable way depending on the forces acting upon it. Random elements are allowed as long as they are "plausible", which holds a position higher than "possible" but not so high as "probable". Character actions and outcomes must flow from previous situations and actions to make sense.

However, you are allowed one completely random event in either the first or second act (of a three act screenplay). The fluke in the first act sets the story in motion. The fluke in the second act rationalizes the level of hope; that is, if things are all doom and gloom then it gives the heroes an opening to win, whereas if everything is too easy then it creates an obstacle that puts the assessed odds of success of the heroes into a probablistic sweet spot of plausibility.

One of the big tricks is having enough foreshadowing so that some people will pick up on the spoiler ahead of time, and the vast majority will get it after the fact, but you have to make the audience work for it.

This study seems to run against the above line of thought, which says some bad things about somebody. Either the writing was crap and the spoilers made it better, or the readers were idiots and the spoilers made it easier. I guess it depends on your capabilities as a writer and your target audience.

A mediocre writer trying to entertain the lowest common denominator is going to handle this differently than an excellent writer who plays to, among others, a careful and thoughtful audience.

Case in point (or case ON point for the lawyers in the crowd): Rent the Memento DVD. It is in reverse chronological order due to the narrator's brain damage. The DVD special features allow you to play the story in chronological order which is hard to watch because it is a) boring and predictible and b) much more pathetic.

If you know the ending (which in this case is the beginning) then the story is not as enjoyable to follow IMHO.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are probably right.

This is a mixed grab for me. Sometimes I don't mind spoilers, sometimes I do.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

Spoilers ruined a Beautiful Mind for me.

I was pissed, it could've been a good movie, I think.

Still Sheepin'

I usually don't mind spoilers, albeit that's related to my rather idiosyncratic method of reading. (I read through $BOOK the first time hyperquickly, half-skimming, then later go back and reread multiple times. Spoilers only really damage the first time, if anything at all.)

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

My teacher basically gave away the entire plot of A Beautiful Mind before we watched it in class.

That said, the twist still came totally out of left-field, because the spoiler actually made me look for the twist in the wrong place.

So, I guess it can help sometimes. I still don't like it to happen, though...

I am now known as Flyboy.

I don't like spoilers. I want to be surprised, and want to go back and re-read or re-watch and have that "hey...I see what you did there" moments.

The only time I have enjoyed spoilers of nay kind are for books/movies, I jsut can't force myself to sit through *coughTwilightcouch* but I still want to know what all the fuss is about.

I am a nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect.

Why was this posted in Writer's Block?

Incidentally, I find the "plot physics" digression utterly absurd, especially when it starts trying to put numbers on "completely random twists". The idea of someone trying to formulize writing (and thinking it would produce something good) gives me a good laugh.

edited 20th Aug '11 8:38:14 PM by nrjxll

I would like to see a bigger break down of enjoyment by genre.

Fight smart, not fair.

I love spoilers; I always have to know what's coming. Everyone I know thinks it's insane; I think my family are convinced that it doesn't actually make me enjoy it more but I pretend it does just to be perverse. I'm glad that I don't seem to be the only one.

In my opinion, I can appreciate storytelling more when I have at least a rough overview of the plot, especially things like foreshadowing. I don't attach much importance to being surprised by twist endings and so forth, so for me there's nothing really to spoil.

Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence Darrow

I. Hate. Spoilers. With a passiion. Of course, I can still enjoy a good story even if spoiled, but not nearly as much as I would otherwise. It's the same thing with formulaic, predictable stories. If I know for sure what happens next, there's no excitement about the story.

While sometimes spoilers can be okay (Dumbledore dies, Rosebud is Kane's sled, et al.) and not detract from the story if they're known, some things are based a lot around things that are entirely spoilerific, making a first non-spoilered reading/viewing/etc pretty much essential to enjoyment, since such things are specifically made not to be spoiled, and to be read through twice. It's not uncommon, and if done well it can really work.

In general, though, it's a bad idea to indulge in spoilers. You're kind of being an asshole to the person who wrote the thing if you just check out a summary and then read the story.

edited 21st Aug '11 1:37:37 AM by Five_X

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.

I read about this. I personally don't like spoilers. But I do enjoy reading movie news. But even that can backfire. Example: Keeping up to date on The Dark Knight Rises makes me sad, because some idiot posted a spoiler and then AFTER the spoiler stated "spoiler alert". Now I know too much.

I totally hate my avatar. Just saying.

something like 7 years ago, whenever i read a book like harry potter, i would regularly skip to the end to reach for a bit, going back further each time, to see if i could figure out what was going on before i reached it properly.

it probably gave me more enjoyment from reading than reading without spoilers ever has.

edited 21st Aug '11 3:36:26 AM by Tarsen

There's a reason they call it a spoiler. You wouldn't want to drink spoiled milk, why read a spoiled story?

Yes, I hate spoilers. If the ending is predictable, a spoiler won't matter. It's precisely the big left-field things I want to learn in context.

Under World. It rocks!

I do not really mind spoilers unless they're something huge and out of left field. I mean a story is the journey, and the spoiler is just the destination...

If a spoiler ruins a work for you then it's not really that great a work, is it? Maybe it's just me, but a lot of my appreciation of a work comes from the Fridge Brilliance moments afterwards. If there's no Fridge Brilliance then it was just a 2-hour long piece of eye candy, at best. Not to say that there's anything wrong with eye candy.

Then again, I don't know if I'd like The Prestige as much as I do if I read the summary beforehand.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...

I'd point you to the entire mystery genre where you're supposed to figure out the answer from clues.

Fight smart, not fair.

But... isn't this what rereading stuff is for? You read it once to see how the story goes, and then you read it a second time to enjoy it again in a slightly different way? I like both sorts of enjoyment, I definitely wouldn't agree to being told the ending before I even start reading for the first time.

I don't mind being spoiled, actually. Though I would definitely not say that they improve my enjoyment.

With that said, I think it's the mark of a great work if people can still marvel at the story even when spoiled about it. A sort of Fridge Brilliance, as someone mentioned.

Sometimes, spoilers don't impact my enjoyment. This is mainly because the writer/director knows what the hell they're doing. Along with this is when I can predict a plot twist coming, but it's still done well enough to impress me. Ones that are especially well-done are ones I enjoy returning to and re-read/watch.

More often, I can predict the plot twist with depressing frequency of not only what, but how and when. This makes it harder for me to enjoy it, because there's no excitement or mystery. A good example for me would be the movie Wanted - I saw it, I saw every plot twist coming, and the movie ended with me thinking, "Damn I'm glad I didn't just pay $10 to see this."*

I can't think of a time where being told a spoiler ruined my enjoyment of a movie or book.

In between the two are movies/books where the plot twists are formulaic, but done passably enough that I can lose myself in the moment. Avatar would be a good example of that - good lord, the plot was overused*

, but it was done well enough I could (mostly) ignore that and enjoy it for what it was.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw