Don't You Forget About..

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So, see this picture? I have NO memory of it being taken. I am told this was in Dallas, at Bouchercon. With bestseller author Kimberley Belle on the right, and rockstar librarian Jen Jumba in the front, and me.  And now I know the fourth person is Hannah Mary McKinnon! But truly, this moment is a blank space in my brain.

Can you imagine if that happened for much of your entire past?

And as an author, you’d pretty quickly realize that without being to insert “backstory,” you’ve got your work cut out for you.

And who better to talk about that today than the amazing Hannah Mary McKinnon! (And spoiler alert--the book she was so worried about is now in its second week on the Canadian bestseller list!)

Don’t you forget about me – 

     the challenge of writing an amnesiac character
       By Hannah Mary McKinnon

I’ve always been optimistic, including when I embarked on my writing career. Oh, go on, we’ll call it naïve. 

For example, when I embarked on penning my debut Time After Time, I had no clue how the market worked, how long it might take to get an agent or a book deal, let alone what was involved after publication. It was a simple approach: I dreamed of being published, and when inspiration struck, I went for it, deciding I’d handle whatever came my way whenever it arrived. Thankfully, after much trial and error, things worked out, and here I am a few years later with my fifth novel, psychological suspense You Will Remember Me, which published on May 25!.

When I finished my fourth book, Sister Dear (May 2020), I was positively jubilant. It took a mere four and a half months to write. Single point-of-view character, linear timeline, and a solid plot—the words seemed to flow not quite effortlessly, but easily enough despite going through the usual love-hate relationship with the manuscript. Once I’d sent my editor her first draft (my millionth pass), I felt confident the story was in a good place to start our editorial collaboration.

“I’ve cracked it,” I thought. “After four books I finally know what I’m doing. I’m in control.”

(Enter stage left: antagonist, aka, You Will Remember Me, who slaps the author around the face while cackling, “Muahahahaaaa!”)

As with Sister Dear, I’d plotted You Will Remember Me extensively before I’d written a single word. I’d developed my characters by interviewing them with the help of a handy three-page questionnaire. I’d figured out the larger plot-points à la Save the Cat by Blake Snyder and Plotstormers by www.WritersHQ.co.uk, and had broken down these stepping-stones into thirty bullet-pointed chapters. I’d even put together a photo gallery of my cast. I was ready!

You Will Remember Me opens with a man who wakes up on a beach and has no idea who he is or how he got there. He remembers nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Researching the type of amnesia he suffered from had been simple, and as I’d plotted I’d quickly narrowed it down to retrograde, the kind where an individual can’t remember anything before a certain point in time. So far, so good. Confident I knew where I was heading and the experience would be as painless as it had been for Sister Dear, I wrote, only to hit a big, fat, brick wall when I realized I’d completely underestimated how difficult writing a point-of-view character with amnesia would be.


Let me revise that—it wasn’t difficult, it was writing hell. I hadn’t thought enough about telling a character’s journey without him knowing anything about the backstory I’d developed (try keeping secrets from your characters, they don’t like it). I couldn’t give him any memories, couldn’t allow him a flashback, and most certainly didn’t want scene after scene of other characters saying, “Let me tell you all about you.” How utterly boring that would be!

So, how to solve the conundrum?

In A Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware’s spectacular debut, the story of her amnesiac protagonist, Nora Shaw, is told via a non-linear timeline with chapters from past and present interwoven—it’s brilliantly written, but that set-up didn’t fit my story. S.J. Watson used diary entries in his huge hit Before I Go to Sleep, but I couldn’t copy/paste that idea. I didn’t want my protagonist to have a Hollywoodesque scene where his entire memory came rushing back—it felt altogether too convenient—nor did I want him to remember everything about his past anyway. I needed him to stay confused and muddled for the entire duration of the story, so, what to do…?

I realized I had to divulge his history—or at least enough of it for his storyline in the present to make sense to the reader—through the two other point-of-view characters, Lily and Maya. Although the word count in the novel is split almost equally between the three characters, it was Lily and Maya’s job to carry my amnesiac protagonist’s past all the while driving their own story forward. This presented an interesting challenge, but also allowed me to delve deeper into their minds—and show Mr. Amnesiac’s history from two different perspectives, but not his own. Have them reveal clues both to him and the reader, not too much and not too soon, but gradually throughout the book.

Once I’d figured this out, writing the darn thing was still a challenge. I’d been stuck for a few weeks, which had unsettled me. My optimism waned. That control I felt with Sister Dear? Gone. 

When I sent You Will Remember Me to my editor, I knew the manuscript had issues. The plot felt somewhat convoluted, I wasn’t comfortable with how I’d handled the use of opioids in the story despite fellow author A.F. Brady’s incredible input, and I didn’t think I’d nailed who my characters really were. Turns out not giving someone a history on the page makes them a little estranged from the author, and it took me a while to work things through. Thankfully, my editor pinpointed what needed to be done and with her expertise we took a lot of the story back to the studs and rebuilt it, making it a hundred times stronger.


Some have asked if I’ll ever write another amnesiac point-of-view character. Nope, and if I’d known how hard it was, I may never have tried it in the first place. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ‘author achievement unlocked’ and I’m moving on to other challenges. Don’t get me wrong, I love the final product and am hugely proud of the novel (I think it’s my best, most twisted ending yet), but I’ll never forget how hard it was birthing You Will Remember Me.

How about you? Got a writing experience you never want to repeat or something for which you’d like a do-over? Tell us in the comments!

Other books with amnesiac characters you should check out:

The Life Lucy Knew by Karma K. Brown

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty


HANK: This is such a twisty great book! And I cannot imagine writing about amnesia--there would have to be so many rules. Hallie, didn’t you write an amnesia book? Have any of you ever known anyone who had it?

And here’s a question for you--what’s the very FIRST thing you remember?

(And look at that first photo again. I must have taken my heels off.)

And don’t forget--join Hannah and me on First Chapter Fun on Facebook and Instagram! Every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30 PM ET, we’ll read you the first chapter of a wonderful new book! Today, Kate White’s THE FIANCEE. Thursday, Aggie Blum Thompson’s I DON’T FORGIVE YOU! It’s https://www.facebook.com/groups/firstchapterfun on FB and @FirstChapterFun on Insta!

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and now lives in Canada. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She lives with her husband and three sons. You Will Remember Me is her fifth novel. Connect on Facebook and Instagram @HannahMaryMcKinnon, and on Twitter, @HannahMMcKinnon, and visit www.hannahmarymckinnon.com