Appearances can be deceptive

Take the gravelly River Derwent (The river I swim in in summer), for instance. Look at this picture:-


You could swear that's a shallow stretch of water. You can see the bottom! It's clear! Surely you could roll up your trouser legs and paddle across that without getting more than your ankles wet, right?

Wrong.

Right by where I'm standing, it's two foot deep. Over on the far side, it's getting closer to three.

I started thinking about that in terms of characters, and writing. Now, no-one in their right mind would slip into the dark, dank waters of a canal. You can't see the bottom, you can't see anything. Just black-brown water. You can't see it, so you assume it's deep.

In the clear waters near where I live, it's hard to believe the rocks you can see clearly under the water aren't just a few inches deep.

But many canal edges are actually quite shallow, with the accumulation of weed and silt. And many of our clear rivers can swallow a man standing.

So I thought:- What's hidden from view is not as dangerous as what is in plain sight.

Because when you can see it plainly, you can believe it's safe... and that belief can lead you into danger.

The things we hide from a reader aren't the most powerful twists or the most edge-of-the-seat suspense. It's the things that are in plain sight, that turn out to be other than they thought, that can pack the most punch.