When should my amnesiac protagonist regain memory?
It is very hard for me to ask this without an overwhelming amount of information on how the plot goes, so this is just a warning of what's ahead...
I am writing a fictional story which begins with an amnesiac waking up by a giant tree, wounded. A nearby lady finds him and takes him in to her residence. It is made known to him that the lady has a stepdaughter. He runs away minutes after getting treatment, feeling he's become a burden for them.
Sometime after, the lady goes to another village for an appointment. The village members, expecting her to have come back hours ago, go out to the forest and search for her. They find the amnesiac unconscious by another tree, deep in the forest and bring him back to village. When the stepdaughter arrives back, she finds that her father and other village members found a letter, seemingly written by the lady. The letter, addressed to the stepdaughter and her husband, warns them of a man (named T for this question) that died a few years ago. Of course, that could not be possible. T was an outcast who did not get along with the members of the village, but found a place in the hearts of the lady, stepdaughter and her father. The amnesiac does not know about T's history in this village.
Afterwards, the stepdaughter waits for the amnesiac to wake up so she can question him about what he saw in the forest before losing conscience. All of a sudden, an agonizing scream overpowers their ears, and it becomes certain that the source of this bewildering sound is just by the window of the room he was resting in. They go outside, only to find the lady's guts and blood, sprawled all over her corpse. Because of that scream, the other residents of the residence gather around the corpse. Some background characters quietly ask each other, whether lady's warning about T was real.
The amnesiac soon gets a headache, due to hearing a very familiar name. He then gets hallucinations about a snowy terrain which is associated to the man named T.
Now, is this perhaps too early for an amnesiac? Does this reveal too much about the plot in the first chapter?
I am mainly worried about the lack of effect this kind of character development will have on whoever will read this fiction. This story also uses two POV's that switch frequently throughout the first chapter etc. One belongs to the amnesiac, other to the stepdaughter.
This is also my first time writing in first person view while being an amnesiac, so I am not entirely strong with this knowledge, other than recurring, cropped visions that are mostly unclear until a certain point in time when the individual regains memory.
I'd really like to hear some of your advice on how I can 'sell' the protagonist to others, while he has no background and because I don't want to rush the return of his childhood memories, or any memories at all that help him find out who he is.
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For the reader, a person with amnesia caused by a brain injury suddenly regaining full awareness can seem like a deus-ex-machina trope. From what I understand, as the brain recovers, this person can regain partial awareness of the past, in bits and pieces. In fiction, you can use this device to give readers clues about an unknown moment in the past so they can enjoy solving the mystery along with (or a little ahead of) the protagonist. If your reader knows the about the moment, you can create tension about the timing of the awarenesses and how it might change the protagonist's responses to events.
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Good storylines are about overcoming challenges, not exposition. Amnesia as a plot device tends to be trite and overdone, however, that does not mean it can't be used effectively. The recent US TV show Blind spot uses the idea of a "drug" that washes away all of a person's memories except for flash bits to good effect.
Realistically in a longer story, it is ultra cliche if the person remembers the information "just in time" or "just as clues", triggers the same panic/pain reaction, or that constantly saves the day, provides a new skill, etc. What we're looking for as readers is a variety of timings, reactions, and effects. For example, if sometimes your "amnesiac" remembers things too late and suffers guilt, but other times gets flashes that help, yay! but even then keep the "remembering" exposition to a minimum.
Maybe every time they try to remember some banished item, they get that migraine, or someone else to use the "edges" that almost trigger a headache, etc. fairly early on, we as readers want our protagonist or story to overcome the blockers. But if any obtained information has a predictable result, that's boring.
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Amnesiacs usually never regain their memories if memory loss is caused by physical trauma (getting hit in the head by a tree) or drug use (e.g., surgical amnesia). The only way memories are occasionally regained in real life is when painful memories that have been blocked from consciousness as a means of psychological protection are somehow dealt with, usually through intensive therapy. In these cases, a person is blocking specific memories only. They would not remember being held at gunpoint or seeing a woman get run over by a semi, but they would still remember non-painful things like having gone to the grocery store or having knitted a sweater vest, even though the events happened on the same day.
It is a trope to have a story where an amnesiac recovers their memory as a means of revealing plot. I encourage you not to use it. Consider instead turning the "amnesiac" is a liar. That might make your plot more interesting.
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"What the protagonist doesn't know" is an obstacle. Each obstacle should be overcome in order to advance the plot.
You may have to plot out your entire story and work backwards, seeing where each obstacle should be removed for maximum effect.
Heroes Reborn just did this in its recent 10-episode run. Noah Bennett appears in the first episode at a summit of powered and non-powered humans, and there's a terrible explosion. Thousands die, including his daughter Claire.
A year later, a guy comes to Noah claiming Noah's memory was erased, and that he needs Noah's help. In each episode, Noah finds a different person who tells him a little more of the story as he traces farther back to figure out what happened.
Each reveal tells Noah and the audience more about what occurred and why it might have been covered up (which, it turned out, was a good thing).
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