Writing Focus: Red Herring

There are many ways to deceive your readers and leave them hanging onto every single word you write. One of these techniques is red herring, a simple yet important literary device that has been tried and tested over the years! Used within a story, a red herring can be a clever ruse to delay the reader’s mind working out the finer details that will eventually lead to the plot unravelling before their eyes.

What Is a Red Herring?

The main goal of a red herring in a plot is to move the attention of the reader from the main conclusion and instead focus their attention and puzzle-solving skills onto another path that leads to a false conclusion. Simply put, a red herring is a person, object or piece of evidence that leads to something that isn’t true, allowing the author to effectively pull off a surprise ending or conclusion to a certain part of the plot. Red herrings are used frequently in crime and mystery novels to take the attention off of the real suspect or murder weapon and instead place blame with something or someone else, only to have the lead go nowhere and have the suspect revealed to a surprised reader.

Tips

The key to using red herrings in your plots is to not make them completely obvious, whilst still pulling the reader in a different direction. A good way to do this is to have your red herring creep into the story gradually – mention it once or twice, before making it a legitimate part of the story. If you’re writing a crime novel, it may be a good idea to also have the authorities tracking something else, but focusing most of their manpower on the red herring.

Don’t make your red herring aspects unbelievable. If you’ve managed to pin down a character to a crime, but they turn out to be innocent then you should explain why the red herring was where it was – for instance, if you have the murder weapon in the house of your innocent character, then you need to explain how it got there!

Be careful with how you use red herrings. Using too many in the one story can confuse the reader and may put them off of reading the story altogether! Ensure that if you do use red herrings, that you do so sparingly and in a way that won’t completely confuse the reader.

Prompts

Looking to use red herrings in stories, but unsure of where to start? Check out these prompts to help you along the way!

1. Your character is a police detective who is sent down the wrong trail when an incriminating piece of advice implicates an innocent man in a deadly crime. Write about the steps the detective takes to follow this false lead.
2. Your character is in a committed relationship, but keeps finding evidence that their partner is cheating on them when in reality, they are creating a surprise for your character. Write this story from start to finish, including the character’s reaction when they realise they’ve mislabelled their partner as a cheat.
3. Take the first prompt and reverse the views, writing from the point-of-view of the innocent man who has been caught up in the false lead.

Although red herrings can be tricky to pull off well at times, they can definitely add an extra element of surprise and excitement to any story. Why not try it out today?

Special thanks to silent hearts. and sheepcat; for editing!