I like to write deceptive characters. Loki is one of my favorite, but he’s not the only one. They’re not all deceptive for cruel reasons, but it is usually for some sort of manipulation.

The thing is, it’s not easy to be a dishonest character if you don’t do it right. It has a lot in common with being a writer. Yeah, don’t stick your tongue out at the screen, it’s all a form of storytelling. With storytelling, you have to keep your world straight. Your characters, their past, their habits, the rules. If you don’t, someone catches it. They’ll come down on your inconsistency so fast your head will spin.

Like William Shatner answering questions about story continuity at a Star Trek convention. (Which I tried to find the original SNL clip for, but after minutes of searching Youtube gave up). People will want to know why children can cast magic subconsciously before they get to Hogwarts, but need a wand after.

So you have to keep your own story straight. Just like that guy who you can’t tell when he’s telling the truth and when he’s weaving a fanastic tale for his own gain.

Which is why I’ve learned some storytelling tricks from my own characters. The first one wasn’t super helpful, but it did start the conversation ball rolling. I’m told (by my characters) that they love nicknames for women. Think “Hey, beautiful”, or “Hiya, sexy”. It’s great because the woman loves the compliment and never thinks to ask why the guy can’t remember her name.

And then I pouted and asked for more stuff I could use and relate it to writing, and I got this:

• Only bend the truth as much as you have to. Some of the best lies stories aren’t elaborate fabrications that come from the middle of no where. They start with a foundation the teller already knows, and they get rearranged until they make a better tale.
• The less elaborate the better. When you’re weaving your tale, if you start talking about where the kitchen table sits, and what color the plates are, and how far apart the guns sit on the gun rack, you’ll have to remember that all later if you reference it again. Describe what’s important to move the story forward, and let the rest hover in the background untold
• Expect to get called on it. If you do something, say something, decided something, expect someone to ask why. That doesn’t mean you have to explain up front, but as the storyteller, you have to prepared to if someone wants to know.
• When in doubt, the unexpected is your friend. All right, so you tried to follow all the rules of deception intricate storytelling, and you still found yourself stuck. You can’t explain it, you don’t know where to take the tapestry of your tale, what do you do? Toss in something unexpected. It doesn’t have to be outrageous, in fact the more plausible the better, but it does help if it comes out of left field.

Apparently there’s more to it that they’re telling me, but those are the basics to suspension of disbelief.

What other tactics do you use in your storytelling to help pull the wool over the reader’s eyes and suck them deeper into the story?