Mastering the Slight of Hand

Writers often have to be many different people when they're in writing mode. There's your creator hat, your editor hat, your researcher hat...the list goes on and on.

Today, I am going to ask you to don yet one more personality. The Magician.

Being a magician when you write is very important for one essential aspect of a good story: the slight of hand.

With this method, you introduce important plot information in one hand, but as the magician, you distract the reader's attention with your other hand. It's the good old, "look what's happening here and don't be distracted by the curtain to my right."

When the slight of hand is played correctly, it plants the seed of information in your reader's mind without causing them to focus on it and figure out the plot way before your protagonist does. It keeps the story from become too linear, predictable, and boring.

What's great about slight of hand is it doesn't only need to be utilized while giving giant clues into the major plot of the novel. Slight of hand can also give great depth to characterization of both major and minor characters. It can also be used to describe setting and time period.

Let's look at an example:

Plutonimus, your main character, is a banking man at Crooney Credit by day and a Slim City drag queen by night. However, the reader doesn't know the drag queen character in the book is Plutonimus until later in the narrative. To plant the seed of information in your reader's mind, slight of hand will be a great ally.

In this scene, Plutonimus is getting lunch with his coworker from Crooney.

"Why in the world would you approve that home loan?" Gregor asked, sliding his tray further down the line.

I selected a pink plastic fork from the rainbow colored cutlery bucket. "They seemed like they understood the repercussions of taking on such a large sum-"

"If I said I understood what it meant to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, would you sign off on my suicide note?"

I shrugged, considering it. 

Gregor groaned. "Give me a pen."

I pulled a Slim Street Banking pen from my pocket and clicked it open. I extended it toward him, then pulled it back. "How were they supposed to know he was going to lose his job, huh? How do you plan for that?"

"You don't take on a loan you can't repay." Gregor snatched the pen from me. 

In this example, the reader is focused on the conversation between Plutonimus and his coworker. They're worried over what the consequences will be for the protagonist's mistakes. However, there are two slights of hand in this scene as well.

First, the pink fork. With an array of colored cutlery in his reach, Plutonimus selects what would be considered a strange color for a man in his profession to gravitate towards. Sure, he could have simply grabbed without looking, and that's what Gregor undoubtedly thinks, but our narrator makes a point of saying the fork was pink. So we know he chose the color consciously.

Then, though he works and banks at Crooney Credit, Plutonimus hands Gregor a pen from Slim Street Banking. Is this simply a pen a customer of his left behind on his desk? Of course not. This is where Plutonimus puts his drag queen earnings so he can keep his second job a secret from his daily life.

So, as you can see, slight of hand not only adds depth and interest to a scene, but it also allows you to reveal info early in the story without being so transparent and giving everything away.

It's a method employed in mystery and thriller novels for decades, but there's no reason YA, MG, inspirational, women's lit, and fantasy shouldn't have it either.

The next time you write, remember to bring your magician's hat along and create some slight of hand magic.