Hello, writers. Have you ever read a book where, toward the end, the author triumphantly reveals something—that the murderer is, in fact, Baldwin! Or that the mysterious force pulling the strings, the man behind the screen to whom they’ve all paid no attention, is, after all that… Baldwin!
And you’re left thinking “Who the heck is Baldwin?”
So you flip back. And it turns out Baldwin appeared eight times in the first 90 pages. But not since then.
Whenever you set up a surprise for readers, you want to make sure that you insert, a few pages beforehand, a little reminder that will help them be surprised by the surprise. Instead of just confused by it. I usually put these reminders in during a revision. (I’ve been putting a couple in today, in fact.)
So, before the big reveal about Baldwin (for some reason it’s called a “reveal” instead of a “revelation” in writertalk) make sure you’ve reminded the reader who Baldwin is. You can have the protagonist think about him. Or see something that reminds her of him. Or Baldwin can step into the room and say “Ah, there are my reading glasses.” Just so the reader remembers he exists.
Or someone can say, “It’s like Baldwin is the only guy we can really trust.” (Ha. That’s what they think.)
Even if Baldwin was a fairly major character during the first half of the book, you still need to insert a reminder if he’s been gone for a chapter or more. The reason is, time doesn’t run the same in the reader’s world as it does in the book. The reader may have had a restless night and an eight-hour workday, a mad dash to the emergency room, a passionate weekend in Venice, in between reading page 146 and page 147.
I almost always find I have to go back and make sure my big reveals are preceded by gentle reminders.
Tonight’s challenge:
A callow youth and his/her stout companion find that their search for the Jewel of Togwogmagog had brought them, inexorably, to the lair of the dread Least Grebe. They are armed only with the Duffle Bag of Least Resistance, and they know not what dangers await them. As the two heroes approach the tower, make sure you find a way to remind the reader of Baldwin, so as to prepare the reader for the terrible shock that awaits them within.
Try to limit yourself to 100 words. And only two adjectives.
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