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I have a character who is sort of an enigma. How long can I keep that up before the reader turns from intrigued to frustrated? What kinds of rules of thumb could I apply to determine this?
Posts: 453 | Registered: Feb 2006
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If the enigma gets stale, I will become frustrated. By stale I mean that nothing more is done with the enigma once it is introduced. If, however, the enigma is alive and dynamic, it can become a kind of separate character in and of itself. Uncover a tiny bit of the mystery here, add something new to the mystery there... The enigma expands and contracts, keeping my interest. Posts: 470 | Registered: Nov 2005
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You need to either be moving full throttle to explicate the character or clearly show that you're just going to leave that character enigmatic indefinitely.
A critical consideration is POV. If this character is only seen through the eyes of other characters, all of whom recognize that they can't really understand this person at all, then you can leave the character an enigma as long as you like. But if you try to use this character as a POV, then you need to make it clear that you are doing everything in your power to help us understand the character.
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