How long do I wait before dropping the bomb? How long does it take before I reveal that a character is secretly pregnant? Or should the readers know all along, while it's the husband who's in the dark?
Well, that's complicated.
Still, it's not good to make them wait so long that they become frustrated and their heads explode. Also, if you're giving hints, it's not good if they're too oblique to be understood.
Still, if you want to be like Timothy Pratchett and draw it out until the end of the book, you can do that. He always withholds just one crucial piece. One little thing that's so bloody important. If you're smart, you can guess it.
Still. Not all of us are Terry Pratchett (bask in his brilliance). And he keeps his stories short on purpose; too much longer and we'd be over-taxed by it. We know the end and the satisfying twist will come soon. And we know it WILL be satisfying, not a let-down. (mine are sometimes let-downs)
Well, as I struggle with this, I've learned this much; you can't drag some things out more than three chapters into the book. If you don't let on by then at least some hint of what's really going on, you're in big trouble.
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