When you write, it's best not to use extra words. A way to do this is to get people to expect what you mean before you even say it. Then you either satisfy or surprise them. By looking ahead to what they think you're about to say, you can steer them cleverly.

The simplest trick is to remove little grammatical issues that will cause double-takes. They're called "garden path" sentences, because a person reads the beginning instinctively expecting one thing, but then you use the words in a completely different way grammatically. (Your intro "walks them down the garden/rose path," as the saying goes, with subtle deception.) This is often great in a poem, but in most writing it's often terrible, in the sense that it's powerfully weakening your hold on the reader's trust, comfort, expectation, and quality of surprise.

[I should put some examples here!]