: Re: How can the antagonist mislead the readers? I am writing a story from a 3rd person perspective as the omniscient narrator. When my antagonist is revealed first, people believe him to be a certain

@Sarah872

Vote Up Vote Down

I would avoid using the antagonist's POV if you want him to remain a mystery. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, one of the main characters is referred to throughout as person X, but is eventually revealed as person Y in disguise. This only works (to the extent that it actually does) because the series sticks closely to Harry's POV.

If you're really dedicated to including significant amounts of the antagonist's POV, the only ways I see to do it well is for him to either actually be convinced he's X, or for him to be such a dedicated method actor that he habitually thinks of himself as X. It's tricky, but possible to pull off a scenario like that.

Other than that, you're limited to using brief sections of the antagonist POV that could work as well for X as for Y. The one good side of that is you could use those sections to drop subtle clues about the antagonist's true identity.

(0)

Login to post a comment!