ZigZag Theory: The Secret to Unpredictable Scenes

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Overview 📚

Readers love to be surprised. They want stories that keep them guessing — not scenes where the outcome is obvious from the first line. So how do you avoid crushing predictability and keep the tension alive?

In this Monday Masterclass, you’ll discover ZigZag Theory: a simple but powerful approach to crafting scenes that surprise, delight, and keep readers turning the page.

Schedule

EVENT

3pm - 4pm EDT

In this 60-minute masterclass from author and book coach Jules Elmore, you'll learn:

How to spot and fix predictable scenes
Why character desire and obstacles drive suspense
How “zigzagging” creates fresh, unexpected outcomes
Ways to apply ZigZag Theory not just to individual scenes, but to your story structure as a whole

Whether you’re writing a novel, short story, or memoir, you’ll leave with practical tools to make your storytelling more dynamic — and a lot less predictable!

Speakers

Jules Elmore

Author and Book Coach

Jules Elmore is the author of The Amateur American (Crown) and three other pseudonymous novels. He was a New York Times Fellow at New York University, where he served as a faculty writing instructor, and a creative writing lecturer at Tulane University, where he taught workshops in fiction and memoir. A passionate story coach, polyglot musician and jiu-jitsu practitioner, Jules’s own hero-journey is to help writers launch their dreams.