by Hal Croasmun

This article is an excerpt from the “Master The Thriller Genre” class.

Maybe you’ve had this experience: I was in a theater last week, watching a thriller with a large audience. There was this moment about half way through when the bad guy was revealed.

The moment it happened, the audience gasped! Not a light gasp, but a physical reaction. The lady behind me yelled out, “Oh my God!”

And I thought, “What great writing!”

That moment wasn’t created by the director or the actor, but by the writer who was a master at creating dramatic reveals.

WHAT IS A DRAMATIC REVEAL?

How do you create that OMG experience for your reader and audience? Let’s start by looking at my definition for reveal.

REVEAL: To make known; disclose; or divulge something important under the surface and to do it in a dramatic way.

When a deep part of character is revealed dramatically, it creates an emotional experience for the audience. It is interesting and entertaining. It isn’t just information, it is a bonding moment between audience and character.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

KEY 1: You create demand for the reveal beforehand by building in mystery, intrigue, or suspense.

KEY 2: The reveal must be done with dramatic impact.

If either of those are missing, the reveal will just be another piece of information that benefits the writer more than the audience.

When done properly, these reveals can be some of the best moments of your story for the audience.

HOW TO CREATE REVEALS

When writing, you can easily create reveals by working backwards. Start with the reveal, then the cover up, and finally how you will create demand.

1. What is the reveal?
2. How did it get covered up?
3. What mystery, intrigue, or suspense was used to create demand to know the truth?
4. When you reveal the truth, how can you make it dramatic?

1. What is the reveal?

It is the moment that the audience discovers something secret or hidden that changes their perspective of the character or story in some way.

Just ask, “What is it that I need them to know?”

This needs to be something that is important to the story, thus worth doing this kind of work on and worth the audience wondering about.

2. How did it get covered up?

You simply find a way to present a different “reality” previously in the story. There is a “cover up” and the real truth. For example, we may think this character is a cop, but it turns out they are a con man. The police uniform, car, and props make the cover up completely real for us.

If we buy into the “cover up,” the reveal will be surprising, at least.

3. How do you create demand to know the truth?

If the audience desperately wants to solve the mystery, then the reveal is much more satisfying. To do that, you plant mystery, intrigue, and/or suspense about what the real truth is.

In the beginning, we believe the cover-up, but as the writer builds interest about discovering the real truth, we become engaged, maybe even anxious, to know what the real truth is. That is the perfect emotional state to have the audience in for the reveal to come.

4. When you reveal the truth, how can you make it dramatic?

Don’t reveal the truth as a boring piece of exposition. Create drama around it. Set it up emotionally, then uncover the devastating evidence dramatically, and with more meaning.

Your Hero discovers the truth at the worst possible moment or in the worst possible way. Discovering this truth could point to a bigger mystery (as in the Bourne Identity example below) or it could create an emotional reaction for the Hero and the people who matter to him or her. Whatever the case, it needs to be dramatic for the audience.