Pulling a Lehane... or trying
Nov. 16th, 2010 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athenaltenaI heard an interview on NPR with Dennis Lehane, one of my favorite authors now, and me being me I like to analyze why it is I like how certain authors write. He’s pretty well known for having twists that you legitimately do not see coming, and I figured out that one way he does it is by having the reader figure out what’s really going on the same time the characters do, maximizing the “Oh shit!” level. I have a twist in my NaNo story that will hopefully achieve the same effect, and I’m still working out when I’m going to drop the reveal-bomb.
One thing that I’d been doing without intending to was set up a relationship between the person who turns out to be the real antagonist and the reader that mirrors their relationships with other characters in-story. Basically, they are not what they appear and completely fooled everyone. Note that I’m avoiding specific pronouns because I hope people will one day read this thing and I don’t want to spoil it (and yes, the gender of this person is a spoiler). But so it doesn’t come off as coming out of nowhere I actually went through and made it so that you never actually hear what this person actually feels when you’re in their POV, they only repeat what other people think. The intended effect is that when the reveal drops the audience goes “Wait, how can it be them? I know them!” only to realize that they really don’t, which is exactly what happens in-story. So they not only trick the characters, they trick the reader.
Whether it’ll work in practice remains to be seen, but I’m rather proud I came up with that.
One thing that I’d been doing without intending to was set up a relationship between the person who turns out to be the real antagonist and the reader that mirrors their relationships with other characters in-story. Basically, they are not what they appear and completely fooled everyone. Note that I’m avoiding specific pronouns because I hope people will one day read this thing and I don’t want to spoil it (and yes, the gender of this person is a spoiler). But so it doesn’t come off as coming out of nowhere I actually went through and made it so that you never actually hear what this person actually feels when you’re in their POV, they only repeat what other people think. The intended effect is that when the reveal drops the audience goes “Wait, how can it be them? I know them!” only to realize that they really don’t, which is exactly what happens in-story. So they not only trick the characters, they trick the reader.
Whether it’ll work in practice remains to be seen, but I’m rather proud I came up with that.
