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Q&A MC doesn't know something that's obvious to the reader

Is it unrealistic for her to be unable to connect the dots and remember her actions? I think you should look at this in a slightly different way. It's not that she's unable to connect the dots...

posted 6y ago by F1Krazy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:42:33Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41243
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:34:17Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41243
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:34:17Z (about 5 years ago)
> Is it unrealistic for her to be **unable** to connect the dots and remember her actions?

I think you should look at this in a slightly different way. It's not that she's unable to connect the dots; it's that she's _unwilling_ to. I notice you specified in the linked question that:

> even when she is alone she is unable to acknowledge the truth of her actions

So she might notice the dots, but she would deliberately avoid connecting them because she doesn't like the pattern they make. She may notice that the power with which she felled that tree is similar to the power from her nightmares, but she would immediately shrug it off as a coincidence, or perhaps even deny that the felling was her doing at all. The alternative - that the woman in the dream is _her_, that _she_ killed her family - is just too horrifying for her to contemplate.

It would still be obvious to your readers what the truth is. But instead of them potentially thinking Eris is an idiot for not putting the pieces together, they would instead (hopefully) realise that she's deeply in denial and simply doesn't _want_ to.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-12T17:19:18Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 19