Donald Maass suggests an interesting definition for static hiss: any information that detracts from the main signal. In a post for Writer Unboxed, Maass suggests that extraneous details and events create static that your reader must sort out before they can get the signal you intend to send with your story.
Beginning writers often put too much day-to-day life in their stories, such as their character’s every thought or inclination, their morning shower or daily commute. Unless some event occurs that moves the plot forward, we never need to see your character in the bathroom or car. “The error is in supposing that readers are automatically fascinated by new information, or need to “see” the environment of a scene, or that what a character thinks or feels automatically matters,” Maass says.
Every story needs some background for characters, setting, and scenario. Deciding which is most important is crucial to your ability to communicate your story. “Information only matters when it matters to a character,” Maass writes. “What gets us, your readers, interested isn’t the information itself but what it means, what it implies, and how it makes a character feel…For the information to have an effect on readers, readers have to feel for themselves something about it.”
The key, according to Maass, is to make everything personal to your character. If they feel something, it should be a strong emotional response to a situation or person, not merely an abstract ideal or aspiration. This is also true for setting. The better you can describe your character’s reaction to place, rather than simply what they see, the more you draw your reader in and the more the information matters. Maass suggests the difference is description versus observation. What your character observes – thinks, judges – is more important than what they witness.
