Hi Do you know how to write characters with dark secrets?
Hi there! I think there’s two routes you can take with this: your character can either not mention it at all and then you can unveil it in a big twist, or your character can hint at it and obsess over it for the whole time.
I can’t tell you which is better because it will all depend on your character and the type of story you want to tell, but I can go through the two options!
If you want to write this secret as your typical plot twist, your character is going to have to never say a thing about it. Characters that don’t mention the secret either don’t know it, are ashamed of it, or know it and aren’t saying anything (these lying types are called unreliable narrators). I don’t know what you’re counting as a “dark secret,” but let’s just say that your character has killed someone. Obviously we can see why your character would be ashamed of this act, and not talk about it. It also makes sense that an unreliable narrator would work really well for this kind of story, just casually omitting the fact that they have taken a life.
But characters that don’t know this big and dark secret are good to write, too, because they’re in the same boat as your readers. I wrote a character that didn’t know she was the daughter of her enemy, and my readers didn’t know it either until it was revealed. It gave them the same sense of surprise and confusion that my character was feeling, and it worked out really well.
On the flip side, your character can know exactly what they’re up to. If we keep going with the murder example, your character can go through periods of narration where they are tortured by this one event in their past, something they did that will keep readers guessing as to the source of their guilt.
Bottom line, your readers can’t know what this Big Secret is until you choose to reveal it, so what matters is whether your character knows.
OH, and don’t forget to develop your character beyond their big secret. If they don’t know the secret it won’t be much of a problem, but be sure to avoid flat characters. I hope that helped you out somewhat! If you ever want to send in another ask with specifics to your story or about something else, please feel free!
