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Topic : Re: I'm afraid that my setups will be overlooked I have a main character that cannot die. I'm trying to convey this information to the reader, but since my character isn't aware of this, I've - selfpublishingguru.com

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Answer: In my experience, introduce hints / foreshadow through multiple different devices.

The most obvious is to have the character not die early on, as you suggest. This would communicate the information through action. He is in a fight scene, he gets stabbed, goes septic, and miraculously recovers without medical intervention or whatever. No one would miss this.

A less obvious way is through dialog. This is most effective if it is not a single line drop, but something more developed--an argument or other dynamic exchange, and information is presented back and forth and turned inside out, one person debating the illogic of it, another insisting that he knew someone that this had happened to, a third telling them he used to believe it but didn't anymore--something like this where the reader is sort of immersed in the controversy.

Less obvious yet is through narration. You simply state it. A single line will probably be missed.

You can add in legends, artifacts, memories, family stories, or even other similar abilities (perhaps the ability to heal others or whatever), and so on.

In the end, the more ways and more often the information comes up or is alluded to, the less likely the reader is to miss it. I suggest going overboard and asking your beta readers at what point they 'got it'. If you use the 'action scene' mechanism to show it, chances are that will be enough. If you use dialog, you might need a couple instances. And so on.

(And for what it is worth, one thing that was mentioned literally fifteen times in narration and dialog in my story was not noticed by one of my readers. She only saw the one instance of the 'thing' when it was used in action.)


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