Pork is not “the other white meat.” Carrots don’t boost your eyesight. In a recent post to her email list, Janice Hardy says that these and other false facts can provide a fascinating element to your character – who may be absolutely sure of something and still be wrong. “This is one of my favorite plotting tricks, because not only does revealing the truth shock the reader, it also shocks the protagonist,” she writes. “It can send the story sideways and into new territory and shake up everything the characters thought they knew.”
How so?
Your characters can make decisions based on false information. These decisions may seem well thought-out but are inherently flawed, because the underlying facts are wrong. “You don’t have to do anything convoluted or contrived to get them into wonderful trouble,” Hardy says. “They’ll just make honest mistakes with costly consequences that feel natural to the story and the character.”
Discovering the truth can hurt, especially if the knowledge comes at the worst possible moment. “Small things (like carrots make your eyesight better) can help create surprises, but big reveals can be a climactic shocker the entire novel builds toward,” Hardy notes. “Revealing a hidden truth is also a useful way to blindside your protagonist at the All is Lost moment and send them right into their Dark Night of the Soul. Discovering you were wrong about something you would have bet your life on you were right about can rattle you to the very core.”
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