My villain is a mole on the hero team, but for some reason, whenever I try to reveal this, it comes off as Deus Ex Machina. They feel fully developed, but I know that I can't hint towards their true identity. So, how can I not hint at something, then revea

Hello there, reasonably-stressed writerly friend~ ♥︎

I totally understand where you are coming from. This is actually hand-in-hand with a few questions I got about writing Mystery novels. After all, how do you keep the twist a secret without making it come out of nowhere, and without foreshadowing it to all hell?

Before we begin, though— I don’t want to be the Word Czar, but I have to clarify your use of the term ‘Deus Ex Machina' (I totally got what you meant, but I want to make this clear so...