When
we tell a story, one part of the reader's experience is illusion. The
reader loves getting fooled--hoodwinked--but only if you do it fairly.
Mystery writers have a box of plot tricks for pulling off illusions and
any author can use them. Amongst the most fun is the tangy-sweet red
herring.
In old-time
fox hunts, the hounds were distracted by a fish laid in the trail.
Inexperienced dogs would stop and signal a find while the rest of the
hunt moved on. After a couple such fails, the smart dogs learned not to
be distracted by a red herring laying too obviously on the trail.
These
days, mystery authors love to share stories about their characters
telling them everything. That can be true to an extent, but in mystery
in particular, there is no substitute for a good plot--and fish stories
are a part of that. Like foxhounds, experienced readers won't be
distracted unless that red herring smells and tastes delicious. Too
stinky and you know it's gone bad, too subtle and they run right past
it. The most successful red herrings share a few traits:
1)
Means, motive and opportunity. Your herring suspect and subplot have
to be plausible. In this way, it's like writing a second book.
2)
Author passion. To make the red herring real, it needs to smell
delicious, to taste like a lobster thermidor, and to seem a part of the
scenery--like a fish in the pond.
3)
One fatal, but subtle flaw. Even though the herring is plausible,
fairness requires a clue to its being a plant. Something has to feel
not quite right. And I believe the best herrings contain a masked key
to their falseness. Kudos to the savvy reader who finds it.
But
mostly it needs to just feel right. In my first suspense novel,
Distortion, I actually wrote the first two acts with three completely
plausible plots. In the middle of the third act, character interactions
revealed the killer to me. They also revealed the flaw in each of the
other subplots. My editing job came of making sure I had laid enough
clues.
And that
comes back to author passion. If you write your book without knowing
the final conclusion, then you the author won't know which sub-plot is
the herring. You'll write it tight as plot.
The
final clue adjustments will come in revision. Like all storytelling,
balance and rhythm play a huge role in believability. Plot must
intertwine with character feelings. In some ways, it's all a mystery.
This post is in part of the
Book Blogger Fair so if you want to learn more about it check out the
July 2013 directory for more authors/books, giveaways, events, and more!
Lucie Smoker's imagination grew up at a Little House on the Prairie
and at 221B Baker Street. Her first suspense novel, Distortion, was
published in November by Buzz Books USA. Its sequel is in the works.
Her freelance articles appear in mutiple print and online magazines. A
passionate storyteller, she lends her voice to mystery productions on
two continents. For more info visit
luciesmoker.wordpress.com,
Facebook, or
Twitter.
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Distortion Summary:
Artist Adele Proust is over her ex, activist
Jack Thomas -- or so she thinks. At a 3-chord punk bar, Adele drinks to
forget him, but when shouts of "Fire!" send the nightclub into chaos,
she stumbles over a slashed-up corpse. ... Her signature
technique brings out a pivotal clue that was missed by the police: a
paper currency strap. The FBI thinks Jack may be behind the murder and
they want Adele to spy on her friends, but she refuses ... until someone
starts killing them off. |