Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Plot Devices: Should we use them? (part 3)


In mystery stories, one commonly used plot device is the red herring, which involves false information that diverts the audience's attention away from something important. This method is often forgiveable, especially when it is easy to make incorrect assumptions despite the truth being available. Human emotions can easily distract, so when these are emphasized in a story and key elements are overlooked, the audience will appreciate their discovery of the truth later, especially when they can look back and see what they missed. However, bad writing sometimes involves a red herring that is not paired with any useful information at all, so when the big surprise is revealed at the end, people will be angry if they never had even a small chance to figure it out in the first place.

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