Keeping Secrets

I’ll admit it. I’m a Harry Potter groupie.  I’ve been re-watching the movies these last weeks as my ‘got things done’ reward.  Today it was more like the “it’s Sunday’ reward.

As I’m watching, I’m struck at the times where the author and the character’s hold back information from the reader and the other characters.

When Hagrid first comes home from his travels in The Order of the Phoenix, he has a black eye.  When they ask if the giants did that to him, he kind of hedges.

For most of the movie/book, Dumbledore ignores Harry, not the actions of a man who used to be Harry’s mentor.

These actions from the characters make us wonder why.  And make us keep turning the page.

Today, I’m wondering how to keep secrets in my own writing.   How to hold back what’s not important to reveal at a better time.

Sometimes the characters do it for me. I’ll be writing a story, and all of a sudden, they’ll reveal something that changes the story.  That makes it better.  And when I go back into the story to make sure the  background is there, and I’d already written the bones.  I was the only one that didn’t know where the story was going.  My characters had known all alone.

Just like Hagrid, keeping the secret of his giant brother.  And Dumbledore trying to protect Harry, by keeping his distance.  We won’t even start on the complexity of Snape.

So have you ever had your character surprise you?  Telling you a secret about himself or another character in your story?

 

UPDATE – The Bullrider’s Brother is available at Amazon.uk.  I’ve never been to England, but now my characters have.  LOL