The Anatomy of a Lie

Hello, writers, and welcome to a special Fun Fact Friday breakdown. Today, I’m going to dissect the scene where Liz is forced to lie to Maya. A scene like this, for me, lives or dies in its execution. Let's look at the key beats I focused on to build the tension.

• Beat 1: The Impossible Command. The scene begins with Daemon’s quiet order: "'Tell Maya to join us'". As I tried to convey in the prose, "The words were spoken quietly... yet they landed like a physical blow, erasing any lingering hope that I could reason or bluff my way out of this". The power here is in the subtext. Daemon isn’t asking. He’s demonstrating his control by forcing Liz into an act of psychological violence against her friend.

• Beat 2: The Lie. When Liz approaches Maya, she can't just deliver the message. She must perform normalcy. The internal conflict is immense, and I chose to show it through physical tells. "I forced a shaky breath, attempting a smile that felt tight and unnatural on my face...". Her dialogue is brittle and false: "'Yeah, actually... I'm great'". You, the reader, know she is lying, and Maya senses something is wrong. This gap between the words spoken and the truth of the situation creates a powerful, uncomfortable tension.

• Beat 3: The Weight of Complicity. Liz succeeds in her terrible task. As she leads her friend towards danger, I used her internal monologue to reveal the true cost of her choice. "She was trusting me, walking into this potential danger because I asked her to, and I was leading her directly into the lion's den. The guilt was a physical sickness...". This moment is crucial. It confirms that although she has complied externally, she is internally shattered by her own actions.

By breaking a scene down into these emotional beats—the command, the performance of the lie, and the internal consequence—I feel you can turn a simple conversation into a multi-layered, high-stakes confrontation that will stick with your reader.

Read between the lines,

June Skye