: Re: How can I keep secret a major detail known to the POV protagonist? How do you write a story where the point-of-view character knows something, but you want to keep it a secret from the reader

@Rambettina586

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I like Kai's answer, one thing to add though is that you should make sure that you leave teasers throughout the book. Flashbacks to the two of them playing together or other clues, this is the main key to having a twist like this not feel like a cheat. When you can look back and see all the things you missed and go "of course, that's why".

Think of the movie sixth sense for an example of this being done well. All the scenes played fine when you don't know the twist. But they work equally well once you do know it, and they have added meaning at the same time.

By doing this it doesn't feel like a cheat when you do unveil the twist, since there were subtle clues there all along. The trick is to get the clues to the right level of subtlety where most people can see them looking back but don't work it out ahead of time.

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