In my own novel, though it sounds ridiculous out of context, I had my protagonist visit an art gallery while on drugs and as he was looking at some religious works he had a hallucination in which the devil spoke to him. As I say, that sounds stupid and poorly written, but in-context it's a pretty symbolic and profound moment in my story. Just make sure you don't fall into the whole devil cliché (red horns, tail bullshit) and give a truly original, nightmarish description.
That sounds like it could be a horrifying moment in the story. I'm not religious at all, and don't buy the god/devil story. However, I've always felt that it's the consequences of giving into the devil's temptations that should be truly horrifying, not the way the devil looks. A scary devil, I feel, is less terrifying than a good/kind/handsome devil who leads you to sell your eternal happiness for some transient benefit. If I believed that sort of thing, the moment where I realise I am LOST forever would be truly horrifying. I agree that creating a devil cliche will probably not scare people very much. When the characters don't see 'him' in his true guise, or when they do recognise him but decide they don't care about the consequences, or they believe they'll find a way to beat the consequences when the time comes—that's what will drive a memorable story, I reckon.
Normally i would agree but the story also takes place nearly 200 years from now. Scratch now isn't that well known, 200 years from now it could be completely gone. Also, as far as the character is concerned, supernatural events don't generally happen, as this isn't a supernatural novel, so to him its just some old man named Mr. Scratch, he has no reason to put 2 and 2 together.
I think the approach you're going with could work but even though the devil might be playing nice it should by hiding that he is manipulating the character for his own selfish gains.
I don't even think I will go that far. The devil has no real play in this scenario, as far as the context its all dreams and imaginings by the character. The character himself has his doubts about god, the devil and spirituality. The idea is that its the devil, but he is only telling the character to do whats best for the character over whats best for the common good.
Personally if done well enough I don't think it would be a cop out. Personally if you're going with 'Speaking with the devil' maybe have an old man or a rough looking man come up and sit next to him and strike up a conversation and just allude to him being the devil. Have him in a fancy suit or something kind of like Death from Supernatural.
Looks pretty good. Got me thinking of the Devil and how it relates to my book. Which is really not at all until the last book.
