Overview

Knowledge tracks information as story state. It helps answer: What does this character know now? Are they guessing? Is the reader ahead of them? Did a reveal happen too early or too late?

Awareness States

Unaware means the character has no meaningful knowledge of the fact.

Suspects means the character has a hunch, clue or suspicion but no reliable proof.

Partially Knows means the character has some truth but not the full picture.

Knows means the character has enough information to act as if the fact is true.

Progression does not always move neatly upward. A character can be misled, lose confidence, discover a partial truth or have a correct belief undermined.

Confidence

Confidence records certainty. A character may know something confidently, suspect something weakly, or be very confident about a mistaken belief. This distinction is important for dramatic irony and continuity.

Reader Knows

Reader knowledge is separate from character knowledge. If the reader knows the villain's identity but the protagonist does not, the story is using dramatic irony. If the protagonist knows something the reader does not, the story is withholding information.

Knowledge Progression

Use knowledge events for reveals, discoveries, corrected assumptions, regressions and secrets changing hands. Continuity warnings can then help find scenes where a character acts on information they should not yet have, or fails to know something they already learned.

Mystery And Dramatic Irony

Knowledge is especially useful for mysteries, thrillers, conspiracies and romance secrets. It lets you separate what the reader knows from what each character knows. That makes fair clues, hidden motives, mistaken beliefs and delayed reveals much easier to audit.

You do not need to record every fact. Track knowledge when it changes what a character can reasonably say, suspect, hide, reveal or act on.

Related Guides

• Continuity Warnings
• Story State
• Continuity Explorer