Red Herrings function on the same level, distracting characters from the larger questions or prevent audiences from predicting the outcome of the story. ![]() ![]() While the magician is prompting you to look at something shiny in his left hand, he’s carefully hiding the multi-colored scarf up the sleeve of his right. Red Herrings are a bit like magic tricks - they work best when you don’t realize what’s really going on. And it doesn’t matter if the use of the Red Herring is intentional or unintentional if it misleads, purposefully or not, it’s a red herring.Įnter Now | Final Deadline in 19 days Why Red Herrings Work In fact, Red Herrings can be used within a story to mislead the characters or by the writers themselves to mislead the audience.Ī Red Herring can be just about anything - a character, a piece of information, a physical object, an event, or even an element of the filmmaking. The mystery, thriller, and horror genres have always been rife with Red Herrings, but nowadays you could work one into any kind of story to distract from a big reveal or revelation. It’s anything that misleads or distracts from the larger question or mystery at hand. In storytelling, a Red Herring is a false clue. Not a fish, that’s for sure! There’s actually no such species, so the name of this plot device is itself a bit of a Red Herring. ![]() Plot devices are storytelling techniques writers can use to move the plot of a story forward in some way. More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About MacGuffins What is a Plot Device? Let's dig into this very popular plot device, exploring what it is, where it came from, and how you can use it to write better screenplays. Smell something fishy? It's probably a Red Herring.Įver gotten to the big reveal of a movie and wondered to yourself, “How did we get here? How on Earth did I miss that huge clue?” Well… it’s probably because the writer used a tried-and-true plot device called a Red Herring.
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