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With a year in covid hiatus, Killer Nashville was back in full force this weekend! I absolutely loved serving on panels, speaking about writing for the YA market, and of course seeing old writer friends and making new ones.
The question of the weekend from a member of the audience was - What is the difference between a Red Herring and a MacGuffin? Excellent question if you are incorporating suspense, which of course all good writers do.
The answer...dun dun duuuun...I'm expanding time, holding you in suspense:
A Red Herring is a prominently placed but false clue that leads nowhere, used to throw off the reader leading to a false conclusion or falling for a “twist”
A MacGuffin, coined by Alfred Hitchcock who mastered the device, is integral to driving the plot, through character motivation, and yet its significance is never revealed to the reader/viewer, thereby serving no other purpose. Think the statuette in The Maltese Falcon and the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.
Checkov's Gun (which I'm adding just because) is a foreshadowing technique that follows what is known as the “Law of Conservation of Detail”. Basically, a gun (or any other object/detail) that is shown in the beginning of the narrative must have significance later on.
Thank you, Killer Nashville, for reviving my #AmWriting drive and inspiring an amazing writing community! Until next year...
