: Re: How to deceive the MC My protagonist is finally meeting with the big boss of a mafia. At least, he thinks he is. The boss actually sends someone to pretend to be him. I'm writing from the

In a third-person limited (or first-person) narrative, deceiving the MC and deceiving the reader are pretty much the same thing, since the reader only knows as much as the protagonist. In this case, there's nothing wrong with a little deception.

One of my favourite adventure games, Another Code: Two Memories, actually does exactly what you describe:

Midway through the game, the protagonist ''finally'' meets up with her father, which is her main objective for most of the game up to that point... except it wasn't actually him. Her ''actual'' father shows up a short time later, and the guy she met earlier turns out to be the main villain.

I didn't feel like the game had cheated me, or lied to me; I felt like it was a very clever and surprising twist.

What you could try and do is include subtle little hints that there's something not quite right about this guy. Something he says, or does, that doesn't fit the established facts. Ideally, something subtle enough that a reader won't pick up on it on first reading, but in hindsight will make them think, "Oh yeah, of course this guy was a fake!"

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: Is there a writing software that you can sort scenes like slides in PowerPoint? I generally use PowerPoint for outlining my scenes (prose, not script). I put a general description of what the

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: Is it ok to use long footnotes? In my text, I have a footnote (6 or 7 lines) that is meant to be an extra insight. It does seem, however, to be a bit large for a footnote. On the other

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: Lovesick Character Distracting Readers How do you show that a character is suffering from lovesickness in a story plot, but not distract the reader from the actual main plot of the story?

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: A "sequel" that takes place during the events of its predecessor is called a midquel (or more precisely, an "intraquel"). In your case, only the first 25% of your second book is intraquel,

: Re: How to deceive the MC My protagonist is finally meeting with the big boss of a mafia. At least, he thinks he is. The boss actually sends someone to pretend to be him. I'm writing from the

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: Is there a writing software that you can sort scenes like slides in PowerPoint? I generally use PowerPoint for outlining my scenes (prose, not script). I put a general description of what the

: Is it ok to use long footnotes? In my text, I have a footnote (6 or 7 lines) that is meant to be an extra insight. It does seem, however, to be a bit large for a footnote. On the other

: Lovesick Character Distracting Readers How do you show that a character is suffering from lovesickness in a story plot, but not distract the reader from the actual main plot of the story?

: A "sequel" that takes place during the events of its predecessor is called a midquel (or more precisely, an "intraquel"). In your case, only the first 25% of your second book is intraquel,

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