A better way of writing...

[clannadman]

Hi there. One of my stories currently contains...amnesia. I know, one of the most cliche things you can put into a story. I want to get rid of it, but maintain the blurry origins of the character's history. It's an easy copout for them to say 'I don't remember'. What other plot devices are there besides memory loss to postpone our finding out a character's background?

I found an interesting device that can be used is a character faking memory loss. Although then you still have the whole amnesia thing that may switch players off to begin with.

Ideas?

[Applegate]

I find the most elegant way to do this is by not making a deal of how mysterious they are. Don't point it out. Don't be opaque about it. Don't toss a character at your readers and yell at them, "He's mysterious!", but let him be mysterious in his own way. Amnesia is, I find, one of the least interesting plot devices for the sake of making someone appear mysterious. It's like a tell-tale sign that there is more than meets the eye to this character. There are more elegant ways of doing it, by simply having the character display habits or knowledge that isn't common place, and never to have them be especially generous with personal information.

If there's a guy staring at a wedding dress in a shop, and the story is set in high school, it's more alluring to me than some ditzy guy with amnesia forcing himself on the main character and then turning out to be the reincarnation of the god of the seven winds come to sweep our heroine off her feet and defend her from the massing forces of the bloodred moon of sanctimonious evil.

[papillon]

You don't have to tell the reader everything about the character upfront. You only have to give the player enough information to make decisions when they're relevant. It is perfectly acceptable to drop a little dangling hint about a character's backstory and just leave it there and not explain it until much, much later.

Assuming you're talking about a protagonist, of course. Other characters can simply point out that it's none of your business.

[dramspringfeald]

Another interesting approach is having the "Mysterious" character saying VERY odd things or just ignoring it all together. You can have the bad guy going on about cannibalism or what not and the hero simply saying "don't remind me" or "yeah... now i don't eat ham" and leave it at that. Or "how do you know about x?" and the character just ignores it and keeps going. Make his entire back story a noodle incident that only He and the Sage know about.

There is a difference between forgetting, not caring and simple ignoring their past. maybe "things in the past are best left there" could be the whole back story. let hints of the past show up but never own up to it. Why does Luke know how to fly an "X Wing?" He's never been in one but he's one of the better pilots they have. Sure come to find out the whole reason he was on probation was because he was shooting rats in the desert with a fighter jet and got caught but still. They could have left it out and it would be just another Noodle to his back story... like where the hell he got the thing in the first place.

Edit he was taking out womp rats in this T-16

"I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."
―Luke Skywalker

Edit, and if you take the "Wtf" and make it just another day for that character it would make him 10 times more mysterious and add a little more mystery about the back story.

[arachni42]

It's an easy copout for them to say 'I don't remember'. What other plot devices are there besides memory loss to postpone our finding out a character's background?

I found an interesting device that can be used is a character faking memory loss.

I could probably give more helpful ideas if I knew more about the situation here. Is the character often confronted with people who are actually asking about their background, thus making it convenient for them to say they don't remember to keep it a secret? I could imagine faking amnesia if they're like a murder suspect.... but if they just have a mysterious past they could not volunteer information about it, or if asked they could say they don't want to talk about it (give whatever excuse -- too emotional, too embarrassing, too boring, not important, etc), or they could lie about it, or whatever. Then it can slowly be revealed over the course of the story in various conversations or other ways.

I mean, basically, you don't need amnesia to blur a character's origins if the character doesn't go around telling people. Is there a reason they need to in your story?

[clannadman]

More info: the character is a weak child. They want to be helpful but... and that's where I get to. 'they can't remember' has been filling that gap. I don't know what way I can change it without making it that character's fault

[Fairy Godfeather]

If the character's a child perhaps they've just blocked it out. It doesn't mean amnesia. Maybe they just don't want to speak about it, can't speak about it, get on the verge of a breakdown or bursting into tears if asked about it and then try and change the subject because it's too difficult, too painful for them to speak about. If it's not that difficult a subject then you can just have them not remember. People can have bad memories after all.

What is it in specific they can't remember?

[clannadman]

What is it in specific they can't remember?

Who their parents are or where they're from. It's up to the MC to help them find out and return them to their family.
I wasn't too worried about it being generic at first, but got some negative feedback recently that trashed the idea of memory loss, so I'm wondering how I can change it to be slightly more original.

[dramspringfeald]

...yeah now it sounds like you are reaching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGar7KC6Wiw

[SundownKid]

I don't think amnesia is necessarily to be avoided in everything, just because it's an overused trope, though this mainly applies to fantasy or sci-fi stories where the technology to cause such a thing is present. If amnesia is present, I will ASSUME that it is a fantasy or sci-fi story, because it's nearly impossible in real life. However, in my story, I explain the cause of the amnesia very early on so that it doesn't seem like a hand-wave of the character's past, but a past decision they made regarding themselves. It also factors in as a plot point in the story.

There are few alternatives to amnesia without changing your story idea. If they are a real person, you should make the goal of the story something else. If they are a robot with amnesia, show that they are so the amnesia makes sense.

For example:

An amnesiac hero goes in search of his past. When he discovers it, he realizes he was a royal prince who was usurped using magic.

A former prince goes in search of his sister, who betrayed him and seized the throne.

One of them actually sounds more interesting.

[dramspringfeald]

An amnesiac Child goes in search of his past. When he discovers it, he realizes he was a royal prince who was usurped using magic.

A former prince goes in search of his sister, who betrayed him and seized the throne.

One of them actually sounds more interesting.

Edited for WHO the Amnesiac is.

More info: the character is a weak child. They want to be helpful but... and that's where I get to. 'they can't remember' has been filling that gap. I don't know what way I can change it without making it that character's fault

[Fairy Godfeather]

What is it in specific they can't remember?

Who their parents are or where they're from. It's up to the MC to help them find out and return them to their family.
I wasn't too worried about it being generic at first, but got some negative feedback recently that trashed the idea of memory loss, so I'm wondering how I can change it to be slightly more original.

How old are they?

If they're so young they may just know their parents as Momma and Dadda and they won't be able to provide enough details for their parents to be located. Read about kids who're found at lost and found desks. They may be able to describe where they're from, but what a kid sees as important and what actually is are different things. They may have a common last name, or mangle their last name. They may provide a nickname as their own name and that'll make them impossible to find.

If you don't want to go with communication problems, where the kid's too old to not have a clue where they're from, beyond big house (and keep in mind a kid's perspective of big can be off, everything's big when you're that small).

Ignore the negative feedback. Don't let it put you off. Memory loss is used because it's useful, especially in mysteries like this. The originality comes from your writing, not from the tropes themselves, there's really no such thing as an original idea, it's just how you implement them.

[papillon]

Surprise child showing up that doesn't know where it came from so you the protagonist have to look after it does have a big risk of producing eyerolls. The problems are that if you're throwing together a lot of elements that are both unbelievable and overused just to have an excuse to force characters to interact, it will feel forced. That doesn't mean it should definitely be thrown out and not done at all, because it's still possible to have a fun story even with cliche elements in it. However, you can expect to receive some criticism for it.

As Fairy Godfeather mentioned, young children are often a bit confused about important information. Sometimes the best you can do is advertise that you found a kid and wait for someone who recognises it to show up.

You can also have an extra layer of communication problem if you encounter a lost child who doesn't speak your language, or possibly doesn't speak at all. Physical muteness in hearing children is rare but not impossible. Slightly better known is kids who through various psychological problems can't speak when they're not safe and secure, so being lost would clam them right up. (You get kids like that who can talk at home with their family but will not speak in school at all) Or a kid who's been told not to talk to strangers and is taking that too seriously.

(edit: ah, there's the link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism )

[clannadman]

However, you can expect to receive some criticism for it.

I'm expecting criticism anyhow. You should with any project, but I'm not aiming for something big with this project. I just want to make something fun and relaxing to play. It would be nice not to make a carbon copy of other games though.

[arachni42]

What is it in specific they can't remember?

Who their parents are or where they're from. It's up to the MC to help them find out and return them to their family.
I wasn't too worried about it being generic at first, but got some negative feedback recently that trashed the idea of memory loss, so I'm wondering how I can change it to be slightly more original.

Ah, well, a couple thoughts...
One is the age of the child when they got separated from their parents and where they were from. If they were only 3 or 4, it would be hard to believe if they did have clear memories, especially regarding appearance. If they were 6 or 7... well, some famous stories involve at least one character forgetting the details of their past (which was very, very different from their current life). It is not "amnesia," just lack of good memory.

It is also possible for people to "remember" details that have become distorted and aren't true. Memory is not necessarily reliable.

Also, since the plot is that the MC helps them find their family... well... if they DO remember... would it really help that much? I suppose it depends on how far removed they are; they're not going to need help if they are just down the street from their parents. But, suppose they are in another city. They might know who their parents are, but not necessarily directions back. They might know names, but it could still be hard to actually track down those names... it would depend a lot on *how* they got separated, and what kind of world the story takes place in -- what level of technology, how many people, etc.