: Re: Introducing a plot-critical hallucinogen partway through a mystery? This is a sort of act related question. I have an important drug that causes the protagonist to encounter people and things

It will be very hard to write this in a way that doesn't feel like a cheat. However, in my experience as a reader, endings that feel emotionally real can get away with tying all sorts of pretzels in logic. What this means is that if the problems and challenges posed in the "drug-world" are all resolved prior to the big reveal, the book will still feel complete, whereas if the problems and challenges are solved by "oh it was all just a hallucination," people will want to toss your book out a window.

A good model is the Wizard of Oz (movie version). The entire adventure is a dream, but it has a beginning, middle and end within the dream. Dorothy can't escape her story in the middle (despite unknowingly having the means to do so), she has to complete her quest. After that, finding out it's a dream doesn't make the viewer feel cheated.

You might also make it so that the protagonist is able to gradually figure out what is happening prior to the reveal --this matches dream logic, where figuring out it's all a dream is typically the cue for the dream to end. This way he is working for his release from the drug world, rather than just getting it handed to him on a platter.

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: There are actually quite a lot of popular and critically acclaimed children's books with tragic elements. Many kids dislike these, of course: I remember despising Bridge to Terebithia as a

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: Trickster's attributes I am trying conceptualize character kinds. After several days of digging, me as non-writer found 20 attributes which most tricksters have. The list is still raw. I believe

: Re: Introducing a plot-critical hallucinogen partway through a mystery? This is a sort of act related question. I have an important drug that causes the protagonist to encounter people and things

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: There are actually quite a lot of popular and critically acclaimed children's books with tragic elements. Many kids dislike these, of course: I remember despising Bridge to Terebithia as a

: How long should a good synposis be for a novel? I have always been poor at writing things without including excessive detail, but I managed to rewrite my synopsis with very little detail and

: Writing a character who has panic attacks I myself do not have panic attacks, but I do know a few people who have had them. A few even while I'm around-- so I know what I'm doing for the

: Trickster's attributes I am trying conceptualize character kinds. After several days of digging, me as non-writer found 20 attributes which most tricksters have. The list is still raw. I believe

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