A writer’s most difficult dilemma…the line between unpredictable and unbelievable.

The truth is stranger than fiction. That means fiction authors have a precarious line to walk. Readers want to be surprised, taken on a ride they didn’t expect, thrilled and tantalized….up to a point. Once you cross that imaginary line from unpredictability to unbelievability, you’ve lost ‘em. I felt that way when I saw Angels and Demons. I was suspending my disbelief, wrapped in the roller coaster plot, right up until the moment when the hero and villain get into a helicopter and zoom up into the sky with the deadly antimatter. Both manage to escape this predicament through means which I won’t disclose in case you haven’t seen it. Antimatter? I could buy it. Nefarious villain with a crazy paternity? Okay, but that helicopter scene put me right over the believability threshold. You see the dilemma facing the storyteller? It’s our job to deliver the unexpected, to provide the unpredictable while stopping a wee bit short of crossing that line that sends the reader skidding into disbelief.

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie that pushed you over the edge a bit too far? Would love to hear your thoughts.