: Re: Preserve "The Reveal" vs lying to the reader My story involves a kind of plot-twist towards the end. The problem is that the one of the sources of the misdirection comes from a kind of "Story

@Goswami879

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You appear to be writing your "the story so far" from the point of view of an omniscient narrator, hence your concern abut lying. Instead, describe events through a character lens.

You can do this by writing these parts from the point of view of a particular character -- treat it as a speech, diary, or other thing that the character wrote. Another way to do that is to narrate rather than tell:

The story so far: Bob and Carol have identified the fingerprints found at the murder scene and tracked the killer to his lair. During a long stake-out they watched the housekeeper come and go. Late that night they saw a man emerge, face covered by his hoodie, and drive away. Carefully they followed, headlights off, to see where the trail led.

Unbeknownst to them, Bob and Carol should have been paying more attention to the housekeeper -- the man in the car is a red herring. You know that, but they don't -- and neither does your reader.

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