Regardless of your genre, creating misdirection is one of the surest ways to surprise your readers. In a post on Killzone, Sue Coletta offers advice for planting clues and disguising their importance with finesse.
Importantly, while misdirection requires you to obfuscate information, you still have to plant it. “Clues must be in plain sight,” Coletta says. “A key feature of good misdirection means you brought attention to the clue, and the reader still missed it.” Coletta likens literary misdirection to a magician’s methods:
- Timing. The magician often has the solution in hand before he begins the trick.
- Place. A magician draws your attention to one thing to hide what is going on elsewhere.
- Intention. The magician leads you in the direction he wants, even though you think you have a choice.
“Misdirection is different than misinformation,” Coletta notes. “We should never outright lie to the reader. Rather, we let them lie to themselves by disguising the clue(s) as inconsequential.”
But how do you do that? Coletta suggests planting important information in a spot where nothing major is going on or when you are fleshing out a character’s background. The trick is to drop the clue among other bits of information, so that it’s disguised as background color. ‘The reader will notice the clue because we’ve drawn attention to it, but we’ve framed it in a way that allows the character to dismiss it. Thus, the reader will, too,” Coletta says.
False trails are another useful method for misdirection. “The character knows the clue is important when she finds it, but she misinterprets its meaning, leading her down a dead end,” Coletta explains. You can also present a clue out of context, so your character – and readers – may not realize it’s a clue at all.
You can also use characters to misdirect – a fake ally can throw off your character and readers, but a fake enemy can also be useful. “They provide opportunities for dichotomy, juxtaposition, insights into the protagonist, theme, plot, and plot twists,” Coletta says. “They’re useful characters and so much fun to write.”
