Let’s talk about secrets. Okay, sure the whole point about secrets is that you’re not supposed to talk about them. But as authors, we are the gods of our made-up worlds, and we can break all the rules we want.
For writers like us, secrets are one of the many “secret” weapons in our arsenal, aren’t they? And they can be so delicious! Or brutal. Or damning. Or fulfilling. Or touching. Or the root of madness.
Secret desires. Secret fears. Secret news. Secret clues.
Secrets drive our stories, compel our characters to make poor decisions, bring characters together, or rip them apart.
But maybe secrets can do even more. Perhaps they can bring your protagonist and antagonist closer into each other’s orbit. If you explore both of their secrets, can you reveal that that these two people are more similar deep inside than they’re comfortable admitting?
Try this:
List 5 secrets your protagonist doesn’t want anyone to know about. Then list 5 secrets your antagonist doesn’t want revealed.
Do they have anything in common?
What can you do with this knowledge to heighten the tension between them or make their disagreements more ironic or meaningful? Will their secrets make them more sadistic to each other? Or, conversely, could their secrets make them more sympathetic to each other’s plight?
Another way to use secrets in your writing is to find out how your characters keep and protect their secrets. Do they have “tells” that give them away? Are they wracked with guilt? Giddy with knowing that they carry knowledge that puts them on the inside track? Or are they weighed down by their secrets? Consider how their behavior, body language, conversation patterns, and social interactions might change because of the secret they hold.
Although they’re supposed to remain concealed, secrets can reveal so much. Get your characters to whisper their secrets into your ear, then see how you can turn those secrets into story gold.
[Photo by Saeed Karimi on Unsplash.com]
