Thread: Is it a good idea to keep your character's origin a secret or not

as you may have read in the fiction section i am writing about a female vampire but she will be different than the one in the story. I was wondering should i keep her origin a secret and make Mary mysterious or should i reveal her origin or is keeping her mysterious a good idea and i would like to make her like can you trust her or are you sure she is good or not. Please let me know i will begin the next story soon.

It seems like you should keep her origins a secret. If the reader doesn't know where she came from, the reader can't fully know her motives, and so can't fully trust her. At the same time, if her origin is not a proud one (I have a character who believes he was conceived anally... but he keeps it to himself), then it may be worthwhile to show her origin so the reader can see how it gives her conflict now, making her suspicious.

Food for thought.

Well, it depends. Is this vampire your POV (point of view) character? If so, this depends entirely on whether she know of her origins or not. If she does, so will the reader, if she doesn't neither does the reader. If she's a supporting character I'd suggest keeping her origins a secret, since you'll want to focus on your main character.

Keeping your Vampires origin a mystery is a good idea as it gives you the option to perpetuate her myth, if you choose to write further novels about her. A dangling carrot if you will.
Regards Richard

I like RichardC's idea! Like leaving a wiki-stub in place (but don't make it an obvious hook for a sequel... it feels so cheesy when I see that in films - don't think I've seen it too often in books). I might recommend writing out her history anyway, as if it were its own story, just so you have a canon to refer back to when dropping hints and clues about her past.

I'm so glad you asked this question as I've been struggling with a similar scenario. I have a vampire stalking the dead of a hospital, and of course the humans undertakers ME's are starting to notice that those who havedied there at the hospital are coming up with strange wounds. I have the vampire already introduced, but the main character doesn't know she's a vamp. My story is going to have many POV's, but I'm not sure if I want to spoil the mystery by doing the vamp's POV, or have another vamp come into the mix, revealing the first's identity.

There are just SO many directions a story could go. it's chosing the best one that's difficult.

@Moon - this sounds like it would be an intriguing mystery... a case where you could possibly reveal the vampire's origins without actually revealing the vampire.