Writing: Characters' Past Reveal

I link to The Writer's Digest's 5 Reasons for Characters to Hide and Then Confront Their Past with mixed emotions. 

I would think the advice self-evident from reading novels - The Great Gatsby comes to mind and Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer novels and (if memory serves) Toni Morrison's Beloved. 

But the problem with self-education is its lack of formality. Coming upon on an article can give the instinctual a formal statement against which one can judge their own understanding. Put another way: this kind of article can sharpen your iwn wits.

The reason why a character might hide the past from the reader is because they are also hiding it from themselves. They are in denial. If this is why a character is refusing to reveal information about the past, and at the end they come to terms with it, then not only do we have a reveal. We are also emotionally satisfied. A confrontation with the past is a confrontation with the self, which is ultimately what stories are about.

Use it as you will.

sch

 2/12/22