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NOTE: I've no answers, sai, say sorry.



I want to talk to you about lying to your reader. Specifically, if it should be done, and if so, how.

I'm thinking of twists in the story, those places where you get to smash the reader's understanding of the story like a man destroying an ongoing chess match with a signle furious swipe of his hand. The ones where it turns out that he's really dead, and she's actually an alien, and it's actually a cookbook, and the purloined letter was on the desk all along.

Now, in order for a twist to work, the reader has to expect something else. They should have no doubt that A is about to happen, when what really happens is B. And the readers form their expectation of what WILL happen in the narrative based on what HAS happened in the narrative and on what the narrator has said.

How do you mislead?

In some cases, it's easy if you can rely on an unreliable narrator, who may simply lie blithely to the reader, keeping the writer safe. Equally, there is no problem with simply kicking some minor character from the backstage into the highlights and havign them read a prepared speech filled with, well, falsehood.
If you want the reader to think the castle is a hundred years old, when in reality it is a hundred thousand years old, all you need do is pluck a couple of strings on a nameless dummy to make it say "It's 100 years old," and they'll believe you, and when it turns out that isn't the case, hey, don't blame me, blame the dummy, it was his fault.

Or you can just not give out critical information and let the reader develop erroneous assumptions. This is pretty smooth if you can pull it off, but I'd be too afraid of the readers instantly developing suspicions as to why I'm keeping something back. If the situation were normal, they'd reason, she would be honest with us, and her attempted obfuscation proves she has something to hide. That means that she's trying to pull a fast one on us. And before long, the twist is ruined.

And now, the reason I've called you all here today - what about just plain LYING?

I mean, can I type



And then, after a certain amount of time, either explicitly contradict myself by saying she was never actually dead, or introduce a character whom Mark and the reader are supposed to THINK is the dead Sonya not actually dead, but who is actually just pretending to be Sonya risen again? In the latter case, I would have to have the narrator call the impersonator "Sonya", as in "Sonya said this and Sonya did that" because if I kept calling her "the girl" in an attempt to remain technically truthful while misleading the readers that I meant "Sonya" rather than "An evil clone twin from dimension X".

You know what I mean? Is it okay for the narrator to lie and then later contradict himself with the truth even when the narrator is NOT looking through everything through the eyes of an obviously fallible character, but who is supposed to be giving you the gospel truth from the mouth of the Writer herself?

Of course. That's the only way that makes sense.

Although you may not like the example, I cite "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", wherein Mad Eye Moody is continually referred to as such, but in the end it turns out it's Bartemius Crouch Jr. using polyjuice potion.

As long as you clear up the "inconsistencies" properly, and make it clear whenever you're supposed to that "no, that was all a misunderstanding", then that's really the only way to go about it.

I think straight-off lying can only be accomplished through a first-person narrator. If the narrator is third-person, then it has to be unbiased and truthful--though it can be deceptive--but no lying.

I dont agree with lying to your readers. But I believe its perfectly fine to not tell them certain information which could affect their understanding of something.

In my last book, one of my main characters was the son of the villain. I didnt tell my readers, but I dropped hints all over the place. I had so much fun doing it. It wasnt lying to my readers, but I didnt tell them everything.

Or you can have the characters creating a scandal like in my story.