: Re: How can I keep secret a major detail known to the POV protagonist? How do you write a story where the point-of-view character knows something, but you want to keep it a secret from the reader

@Sue2132873

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There are many ways to do this. The POV character can just not mention something. The problem is the reader will feel cheated. I am going to focus my answer on how not to make this feel like a cheat.

Make the story editorialized. Make it clear from the beginning that the story is being told in some sort of scope, like a confession, a novel,an interview, or just a campfire story. Give the POV character a reason to lie or at least create suspense for the audience. Make this clear.

You can even establish the narrator as unreliable early on. Make him trip up in his own lie over something unimportant. Maybe he is vain and does not want to look bad to the audience. Let us understand why he would lie, or omit things. Then when the big plot twist comes in we won't feel cheated. We knew we should have always been weary of the narration.

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