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17.4: The Gun on the Mantel is Actually a Fish

Writing Excuses

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How to Use Ambiguity in Storytelling

A lot of story telling is contextlizing what has happened. You can use that ambiguity to your advantage to get people to look at the wrong thing or to pay attention to the wrong thing. That still makes sense, but you haven't hidden anything from them. You're just leaving it ambiguous or uncommented on. One of the things that i try to do is take the character who is the most carismatic, the character that everybody likes the most, and have that person look at thewrong thing. The right thing is some place else, but the person we like is looking at the wrongthing. Ah, but yet, the audience is going to follow. They're gong

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