Euugh. Today was supposed to be a catch-up day for writing. As well as a day when I got up and put up this post first thing in the morning. And then … I woke up at around eleven with a fuzzy head and light sore throat … and then I feel back asleep and woke up at 1 … and then I actually crawled out of bed at 3 a few minutes ago … We’ll see if I get any writing done, but from prior experience of forcing myself to write when my brain is like this and then deleting it all the moment my mind comes back and I realize it’s really bad … Well … crap. Saturday may just end up a sick day.
Which sucks, because I really wanted to do a few thousand words on Hunter/Hunted and then do some editing on A Game of Stakes, but if I can’t trust my brain, well …
Anyway, I can do as promised and link a Classic Being a Better Writer post. Which today will be one of the more popular ones I’ve ever written: The Art of Misdirection. You can read a teaser here, then hit the jump for the full thing.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out what to do for my sickday.
EDIT: I almost forgot! One Drink is free this weekend, 100% off from its normal price of 99 cents. Sure, it’s nothing groundbreaking or incredible, like some of my later books, but it’s still a fun, quick read.
Have you ever read a book called The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn?
If not, you’re missing out. It’s a science-fiction mystery and an engaging read, with a fun universe, a clever story, and an compelling mystery. But one of my favorite things about it is how the mystery is handled. See, most mysteries usually do one of two things: they either withhold evidence from the reader in order to keep them from solving it (sign of a weak story) or they give you all the pieces, but in such a way that you don’t put the pieces together in the right order (or don’t realize it’s a piece to begin with). The Icarus Hunt is a great example of the latter, a story that gives you all the pieces, but because the way it presents them, keeps all but the most astute readers from catching it. In fact, the clue that blows the whole mystery wide open is given less than a third of the way into the book. But in the context and scene, it’s presented so smoothly that, like the main character, the reader just lets it slide by.
Unusual Things 
[…] other words, this post is a bit like the much-loved BaBW post on Misdirection, but coming at it from a different angle. In that post, we talked about puzzle pieces and how you […]
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[…] I loved the first book. It’s one of my all-time favorite Sci-Fi books, and if you’ve heard me speak at panels (another LTUE plug) or been around on the site for a while, you know that. In fact, those who have read both The Icarus Hunt and Colony will note an immediate similarity in how much both books expect the audience to pay attention and dole out puzzle pieces to solve the mystery. This is because Zahn is the king of misdirection, and I’d be a fool not to learn from his work. […]
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