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Your Readers Are Not Stupid
15 years ago
General
The book I'm reading is doing something that is particularly irritating, and I'll give you a few examples.
Situation: Main Character is going in to rescue someone. Her friend is sent to go around back and handle the guy guarding the back door. She goes in, kicks ass, and is checking to make sure the coast is clear.
Her friend is standing there in the front room, reading a newspaper.
Not only does the narrator say, "He wouldn't be standing there if he hadn't taken out the guy in the back," but the characters ask eachother if they killed their respective targets.
The main character's mentor has been killed near the beginning of the book. Every single scene since then, the narrator talks about how she's reminded of him, her grief, her determination to get his killer, etc etc. I get it. This reminds me of how in the first 100 Batman comics, every single issue had Batman reflecting on his parents murder, until fans finally wrote in that they got the point.
Three other instances I count where the author explains something, then re-explains something. For instance, "I traced a spiral symbol in the stone, the rune of protection." This is rephrased and repeated about five chapters later.
The above illustrates two things - the latter being redundancy, but the former is what I want to talk about here.
There's a big concern when writing. Because an author knows his story so intimately that he thinks he's clear when explaining something, because after all, he gets it. But the readers don't. The author assumes his readers are quite smart, and things go over the reader's head.
But the reverse is just as bad. Your readers are not stupid, and assuming they won't understand what you're saying without holding their hand is insulting. You do not have to spell out the obvious, nor repeat yourself to make sure they get the hint or message.
I think there are only a few areas that a lack of explanation or clarity will crop up:
1) "Why did this character do this?" When the reader has understood the character, and then they do something outside that understanding without explanation, it confuses the reader. Now the author could have explained, or gave hints about it, and the reader not pick up on the significance of something. On the other hand, the writer could just have easily forgotten to elaborate because the author has it all in his head and it's all clear to the author.
2) "How did this happen?" When the sequence of events - A to B to C - happens, like an action, and they are not described or explained enough for C to make sense. I've seen this in a comic book, where I look at the picture and am not sure what's happening - the C is clear, but I don't see a clear illustration of B to show how that happened.
3) "What does this have to do with anything?" The significance of something is unclear because it appears to not tie in with everything else. This goes back to point #1 - the reader could perhaps be missing something, but the author could just have easily not explained why this is important, or why the characters brought up this. It could also be the author just putting things in that don't belong; too much description or time spent on an unimportant thing for instance.
Beta readers are great for finding what doesn't make sense in your story. Ask them to tell you if there's anything confusing or that didn't make sense.
Situation: Main Character is going in to rescue someone. Her friend is sent to go around back and handle the guy guarding the back door. She goes in, kicks ass, and is checking to make sure the coast is clear.
Her friend is standing there in the front room, reading a newspaper.
Not only does the narrator say, "He wouldn't be standing there if he hadn't taken out the guy in the back," but the characters ask eachother if they killed their respective targets.
The main character's mentor has been killed near the beginning of the book. Every single scene since then, the narrator talks about how she's reminded of him, her grief, her determination to get his killer, etc etc. I get it. This reminds me of how in the first 100 Batman comics, every single issue had Batman reflecting on his parents murder, until fans finally wrote in that they got the point.
Three other instances I count where the author explains something, then re-explains something. For instance, "I traced a spiral symbol in the stone, the rune of protection." This is rephrased and repeated about five chapters later.
The above illustrates two things - the latter being redundancy, but the former is what I want to talk about here.
There's a big concern when writing. Because an author knows his story so intimately that he thinks he's clear when explaining something, because after all, he gets it. But the readers don't. The author assumes his readers are quite smart, and things go over the reader's head.
But the reverse is just as bad. Your readers are not stupid, and assuming they won't understand what you're saying without holding their hand is insulting. You do not have to spell out the obvious, nor repeat yourself to make sure they get the hint or message.
I think there are only a few areas that a lack of explanation or clarity will crop up:
1) "Why did this character do this?" When the reader has understood the character, and then they do something outside that understanding without explanation, it confuses the reader. Now the author could have explained, or gave hints about it, and the reader not pick up on the significance of something. On the other hand, the writer could just have easily forgotten to elaborate because the author has it all in his head and it's all clear to the author.
2) "How did this happen?" When the sequence of events - A to B to C - happens, like an action, and they are not described or explained enough for C to make sense. I've seen this in a comic book, where I look at the picture and am not sure what's happening - the C is clear, but I don't see a clear illustration of B to show how that happened.
3) "What does this have to do with anything?" The significance of something is unclear because it appears to not tie in with everything else. This goes back to point #1 - the reader could perhaps be missing something, but the author could just have easily not explained why this is important, or why the characters brought up this. It could also be the author just putting things in that don't belong; too much description or time spent on an unimportant thing for instance.
Beta readers are great for finding what doesn't make sense in your story. Ask them to tell you if there's anything confusing or that didn't make sense.
Certainly, in the general narrative there can be broader rules for it (like the examples you cited). When exposing a convoluted plot told from multiple POVs or involving technology or philosophies that aren't readily apparent, it gets incredibly tricky.
Mystery/Detective novels are great for this. Something happens, the protagonist doesn't get the significance. Later on, he sees another clue. Most mystery novels show you the character struggling to put the pieces together, but when he does, it's not explained until the Confrontation.