The (Little) Squid on the Mantel

Okay, so the title of this post is a bit of an inside-joke, and blatantly stolen from fellow WSer Lyda Morehouse. It's our equivalent of the old theater saw that says if you put a gun on the mantelpiece in Act I, it better damn well go off before the end of the play. We just use a squid because, well, because we do.

Still, it seemed as good of a way as any to introduce the topic of reader expectation, and how we as writers should be aware of it.

Now, there are some pretty obvious types of reade...