Behind The Mask

VI. Red Herrings

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Red Herrings
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Hint at explanations that may not be true and get the reader to believe a false conclusion about the plot. When done well, they'll feel surprised by the truth and will enjoy the misdirection, having learned something useful about the setting or the characters along the way.

A red herring is a common device used in mystery and thriller stories to distract the reader from identifying the real culprit. The red herring in a story can take the form of characters that the reader suspect, but who turn out be innocent when the real murderer is identified. It aims at keeping the readers guessing at the possibilities until the end, and therefore keeps them interested in the story. Readers enjoy solving the mysteries created by red herrings in the story. Undoubtedly, it would be difficult to keep the reader's interest, if thrillers exposed the killer from the start.

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Actually, halos pareho lang ito sa plot twist ngunit mas madali itong mapalabas. Ang plot twist kasi kailangang pag-isipang mabuti, kailangang mo ng perfect timing (sana all ano? ikaw nagde-decide ng perfect timing, charot), at mayroon ding explanations kung bakit ganoon ang nangyari. Red herring is simply false clues, a distraction, wrong way, o ano pang maling pinakikita sa istorya.

Kunwari ikaw may boyfriend, pero hindi ka pa puwede no'n dahil strict ang parents mo kaso pasaway ka. Ngayon, hinatid ka ng boyfriend mo sa inyo, at para hindi kayo mahuli ng parents mo pinagmukha mo siyang gay. In this case, akala ng mga magulang mo ay kaibigan lang siya dahil babae umasta but... he's not. This is an example of a red herring, halos lahat ng akala mo mali. Your what ifs will make sense kung magaling kang kumilatis ng tao, especially in mystery-thriller, required na required 'to.

I'm gonna share a red herring I put in my story, it's horror-thriller epistolary. Sa part na 'to ng story, Cleo is a killer and she just killed her friend, now the police is trying to find out who's the killer, and she almost got caught.

See? The first one's chapter 49 and the second is chapter 50. Look at the reader, look at how her comment changed-from confused to surprised. Akala niya nahuli na si Cleo but it turned out, iyong iba nilang kasama ang napagkamalang killer. I'm not saying that I'm good at red herrings, but at least, this is what a red herring is.

Red herring is not a plot twist, it's plot twist's child.

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Sources of information:
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-the-thriller-genre-definitions-and-examples-of-thriller-in-literature#8-things-every-thriller-should-include

https://literarydevices.net/red-herring/

My story if ever you want to read it:
Kill, Cleo, Kill by SenoritaSunny

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you.