Being a Better Writer: The Art of Misdirection · 9:28pm Aug 2nd, 2013
Have you ever read a book called The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn?
If not, you're missing out. It's a science-fiction mystery and an engaging read, with a fun universe, a clever story, and an compelling mystery. But one of my favorite things about it is how the mystery is handled. See, most mysteries usually do one of two things: they either withhold evidence from the reader in order to keep them from solving it (sign of a weak story) or they give you all the pieces, but in such a way that you don't put the pieces together in the right order (or don't realize it's a piece to begin with). The Icarus Hunt is a great example of the latter, a story that gives you all the pieces, but because the way it presents them, keeps all but the most astute readers from catching it. In fact, the clue that blows the whole mystery wide open is given less than a third of the way into the book. But in the context and scene, it's presented so smoothly that, like the main character, the reader just lets it slide by.
In good storytelling, part of the art for the one telling the story is misdirecting the audience so that they don't see the grand picture. Just like in any good magic trick, part of the "act" is getting the audience to look at one thing while you do something else. Unlike a magic trick however, with a story (in this case, a book) the one telling it has a responsibility to give the audience all the details, otherwise you end up with a poor story where the author deliberately omits details so that the reader doesn't figure out what's going on (I have read mysteries that do that, and I despise them). So how does one conceal the truth and lead the reader to grasp something entirely different?
Carefully. Let's take a look at the film The Sixth Sense, which is a great piece of storytelling that relies on you not picking up on all it's subtle hints and cues that (spoiler) the main character is actually dead, and is a ghost throughout the entire movie. But how do they hide this? By letting the audience build it's own conclusions through clever omission. For example, one scene opens with the boy whom around which the story resolves coming home to find his mom and the (dead) psychiatrist sitting in the living room staring at one another. The mother greets the boy, then walks out of the room. The audience just assumes that the mother and the psychiatrist have just finished talking. It's never stated, in fact, the whole scene feels a bit odd if you assume that. But since it is the logical conclusion to jump to, we don't question it. Even better, the story itself doesn't tell the audience what happened. The audience builds its own elaborate explanation, no matter how wrong that may be. The Sixth Sense built its entire reveal on this kind of crux. Every time we see the main character he's "just finished" talking to someone else. At least, so we think, because its writers led us to think that.
Pulling this feat of storytelling off is definitely tricky. But it can be done. All it takes is knowing your audience. If your audience is already willing to believe something, you can use that to your advantage. Play off of your audiences expectations. If they expect X to happen and you casually mention X, even while having someone directly state that Y will happen, most readers will simply accept in their mind (unless they're really thinking about it) that X is going to happen, because after all that's what they expect to happen. Pull them to the eventual end, reveal Y, and the reader will have their mind blown, because lo-and-behold, Y happened, and everything did point to Y all along, they were just caught up on the wrong details.
It's something that is, however, easy to say but hard to do. There are a lot of risks. If you don't offer enough evidence that Y is going to happen, then the reader feels cheated. If you're going to misdirect a reader (well, offer them a chance to misdirect themselves really) offer them evidence to the contrary, so that the astute reader who hangs on every word picks up the difference and goes "aha! Thought you had me didn't you?" This is a win-win: either the reader is shocked at the sudden (but in hindsight obvious) ending, or the reader feels resourceful and competent (which can be enhanced if they figure it out while the main character is still following a false lead).
Is there a downside to misdirection? No matter what you do, some readers will be so convinced that X is going to happen that they declare the book "too predictable" and stop reading, proclaiming it to not be that great. I have seen this happen. There's no way out of it. You cannot please everyone. Worse, readers who fall into this trap are usually loathe to hear the actual ending, because upon finding out how thoroughly duped they are, they will simply blame the author. Other readers who are a bit more familiar and think there is a misdirect will just guess everything under the sun, and then declare themselves correct and the "mystery" weak when they find out that theory number #68 was correct. I have seen both, you cannot avoid this. So you know what? Don't worry about it. Instead, worry about that other 95% of your readers who are going to laugh in amazement when they find how thoroughly you (or better yet, they themselves) have pulled the wool over their eyes.
So, when you write, be a magician. Flourish both hands, one with the attention grab, the other with the clue we need. Slide that clue into what seems like a normal, everyday scene so that we don't recognize it for what it is.
Trust me, the payoff as a reader is worth all the trouble you'll go through making sure those clues are right there, but we're not looking at them through the right angle, or not at all.
Dear God... someone else who loves The Icarus Hunt. Please, have my sponge babies.
1258172
It is a criminally underrated classic.
This is a thing that I haven't really had a clear understanding of in my head, and now I do.
The Benefit Of Knowing Viking ZX(TM)
1258494
Glad to help out!
I think I may do more of these.
1258834
I would welcome it, good sir.
1258834
I find this comment hilarious in light of the fact that you've written forty-four of these to this day.
I have decided to read all of your blogpost on how to be a better writer, reading one per day. They are really interesting, and I learn so much from them. Thank you good sir.
I have no constructive criticism to give. You will have to do with praise instead ;D
3498286
If possible, I'd actually recommend reading the reposted versions over on my site, Unusual Things. They've been touched up, with small edits made here and there to make everything read a little smoother.
You can still read them here, of course. Either way, thanks for reading, and I'm glad you find them helpful!
3498292 I did that yesterday. I read: "Better Writer: Wordbuilding Colloquialisms" on your site yesterday. In the fan-fic that I write I have realized that my english, even if it is not enough to write a normal fic not good enough to write the fic i want to write, since... Well, sure I, since my english isn't my first language I am used to look words up. The thing, since the story is taking place in equestria's past the characters can't really talk in today's jargong, or yes they could but it and they probably will since I havn't stopped writting it. yet, as your article describes it sounds pretty of if Star swirled the beareded would be saying: "Cowabounga!". No one would take him seriously... What do you think i should do? Should I just try to not use mordern expressions? Or should I try to have the characters talk old british throughout the whole story?
Btw I think I might buy your book One Drink someday. It looks interesting and the plot of thre story seems to fit to the kind of story I like to read. One question, though. The story seems to be a mystery novel, do you give the reader all the clues early or do you give them when the mystery is solved? I assume that you, based on the blogpost above, that you give them early since it is according to yourself: "sign of a weak story", which I totally agree with you about.
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Colloquialisms and period-accurate language are almost two different things, mostly because if one were to write an 18th-century novel and use period accurate language, it would be largely unreadable for the majority of the audience. Heck, not just in words and spelling, but even English rules of grammar (for example, the man who's name was chosen for the city of Raleigh, NC never actually spelled his name that way ... though it had 12 or so other spellings he made use of, and go back a ways and the uses of "it's" and "its" were actually flipped from today making them more in line with what most newcomers to English expect).
Using period-accurate colloquialisms and jargon is different from using period accurate language. Using period accurate language is more like choosing to write a phonetically accurate accent: if you do a sprinkle here and there while staying mostly modern, the audience knows what to do, but if you go to heavy into accuracy, you lose a large part of your readers due to difficulty.
Your best bet is to find the balance you think will work best with your audience. Use period accurate colloquialism and jargon—sometimes editing them to keep with your language (after all, you don't want a character to suddenly be using thee and thy when they didn't before unless you have a good reason to, such as that being a purposeful form of antiquated speech)—while making sure that the language close but not too close to the period as well. How far you go is up to you, but the idea is to get the reader to envision and read the language while providing part of the lens you've already colored.
Makes sense, I hope?
3503099 I think understand. Writting a novel in 18th century english would be like writting a novel in an other langues but if you want to have a character sound german by having him use phrases like: “Ich bin here all week,” even if you might not know what does words mean you could still be able to figure out what the character wants to say compared to having everything in german. It might not be the best comparrison but the I get your point that the jargong is more like sprinkles or a sauce, which you dip the message in.
And I guess that if thousend years in equestria equal as many years in our time then the ponies in my fic would maybe talk in indo-european, I don't know if that was ever a language or just a theory on where the different russian, european, indian languages originated from and if they are connected by their similarities in phonemes.
I since this is my first fic I would like to aviod using to much old jargong since I might not be capable to pull it off in a good way because chances are high I might mix the old ones with the new ones without even knowing it. At the same time I don't want to have a modern jargong on it. There is probalbity that my fic's character will have no jargong and have very matter-of-factual approach to everything instead of a more emotional jargong approach. Do you think I should just try to not bring in to obvious mordern words like: “Awesome” and hope that if I use a saying or similar things I won't be using a to modern language and to balance it out with titling the characters and make sure that all the characters have names that sound prehistorical equestrian names, like instead of “Skyscraper Window” you have have “Hut Gap”?
Btw I really appreciate your answer and that you took the time to answer. It was very informative and helpful. You remind me of my swedish teacher, an immense well of knowledge. Yeah, I know flatery but it is true. I really like reading your blogpost about being a better writer even if myself isn't the greatest with the english language I still like reading them since they seem to allways new about how to write good, which I didn't thought about before but when I read it. It seems like the most obvious think in the world. I usually get impressed that is what I am saying. It is like the time when I learned about how to solve diffrential equations in math. I mean, I think of myself as a very smart guy but when I read learn about how newton went about solving them, for about fourhundred years ago and he himself says that he saw futher then others since he stood on the shoulders of giants. I think like: “Wow, how many giants to I stand on then?”
So yeah... Anyway, interesting examples you brought up about old time usage of english like that it used to be it's, which is also what I asumed it should have been when I started writing. Although, I do not understand this sentence: “the man who's name was chosen for the city of Raleigh, NC never actually spelled his name that way ... though it had 12 or so other spellings he made use of, and go back a ways” I understand that Raleigh is the capital of the state in north Carolina but that is pretty much all I understand. Was the city named after him or is the spelling of the name of the city in an old-fashion way? Regardless, thanks again.