Tweet of the Day: 20 Crucial Terms Every 21st Century Futurist Should Know
——–
Self-explanatory title is self-explanatory, ain’t it?
This is the bloke that sells the secrets. Has his fingers in all them pies, and such. He knows whose being naughty and who has being nice, like Father Christmas, see, and his sells the stuff at a price. He knows what’s what, mate.
Why indeed?
Because a) a protagonist that knows everything makes for a very dull and short story, and b) information must flow. A story needs a Mr. Exposition, or simply someone to clue the protagonist in on what is really going on, for a price, of course. Or maybe you need to explain why the antagonist knew of the existence or location of the protagonist. And if he doesn’t know, then we are dealing with a very big secret and a powerful antagonist. Or perhaps the Knowledge Broker is the antagonist. Spying on everyone eventually makes an enemy out of, well, almost everyone.
The one problem with this type of character is that they may know too much, thus serving as omniscient exposition that neatly fills all the blanks, thus killing the tension in the story.
——–