On the off-chance you think you’re a misunderstood genius or a prophet who won’t be recognized in their own time, Matthew Norman shares the best writing advice he ever received. After a particularly brutal college workshop critique, Norman expressed frustration with his fellow students, who he believed “didn’t get” his story. At that point, his advisor explained that it was his job to make them get it.
“I’d made the classic rookie writer mistake of blaming the reader for my shortcomings,” Norman writes in a post on Writer Unboxed. “Although the sentences I’d written were probably fine, and the story was serviceable, I’d failed to make that classroom full of fifteen or so people understand what I was trying to say.”
While making readers “get it” is an abstract goal, Norman offers advice for how to reach it. Importantly, if a reader says they are confused about something happening on the page, you should listen. Question whether you could make your point more clearly.
Also, don’t assume your readers will intuit everything they need to know about your character’s background or motivation. You shouldn’t over-explain, but be sure to put key points in context.
