I can predict the failure of a couple union / reunion in a dog blood romance novel when the author hypes up the prep work too much and the prelude for their proposal or confession lasts more than one chapter, there's gonna be a situation rehearsal. Either the leads are gonna be an accident or face some other kind of separation that puts a comma on their relationship where they need to start pretty much from beginning again after maybe a memory loss or a distance separation or a time lapse or sth. When in cultivation novels, the mc faces some extreme situation, I can predict that she's either gonna get a cheat, new skill, advancement in power by leaps and bounds, a new magic weapon, a magic pet, a loyal follower or even a stalking lover. I can predict a character is an SML when a guy other than ML helps MC more than once, they can't possibly be a simple friend, either one of them have to drown in the sea of love.
I knew someone would make this eventually. I can only predict cultivation and fantasy novels. My Dao comprehension on other genres is not that advanced yet.
I can predict in japanese novel who the protagonist would spare or who they kill just by knowing the gender of the other party.
I can usually predict the way a story is going to go by genre/tags and key words in the first ten or so chapters, depending on which country it comes from. there are always a few that have unpredictable elements but most stories here tend to be pretty formula.
The real issue is running into something that did fine with classical plot styles and elements (due to great execution letting you immerse despite reading something like it tons of times) but the author isn't satisfied with being predictable and shits on an otherwise great story with forced plot twist(s). Think Avatar the Last Airbender in hands of M. Night Shymalalalalan.
Yeah I have to agree with this. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a book that's predictable. Classic storylines are classics for a reason and it's perfectly fine if they play out conventionally. The most obvious example is the good old locked-room mystery - it's just not something that needs embellishment to be good. What does end up being bad is when writers fiddle with story conventions that they don't understand. One common outcome is a story that tries to be clever but end up missing out on what made the original concept good and not accomplishing anything to make up for it. The best example I can think of is how the otome villainess books completely miss the point of what made old school shoujo good.
I can predict that MC will get a happily ever after and defeat all their enemies in almost every non-BE novel ever~