You might be forgiven if you find the act of writing requires you to walk a number of tightropes. Characters need to be consistent but surprising. Use the exact right words but not too many. Defy expectations, but don’t scrimp on elements your genre readers expect. One line is a bit more difficult than others: Put it all on the page, but don’t beat your readers over the head.
In a post on Writer Unboxed, Barbara Linn Probst discusses this line, asking how much we trust our readers and respect – and expect – their intelligence. “Do I see my potential reader as ‘humane, bright’ and fully capable of intuition, discernment, and depth of feeling?” Probst asks. “Or do I think of her as—well, a bit slower and less sensitive than me? Do I trust her enough to resist overexplaining everything I want her to feel?”
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In Probst’s case, her early efforts revealed her tendency to show a character’s motivation, and then follow up with internal dialogue underlining what she’d just shown, so that the reader was sure to get the point. Writers also do the converse: announce what they are about to show you.
Another method is repetition. For example, a writer may portray a character’s need and then phrase it three different ways to make sure the reader gets it. This also happens when characters talk to themselves about something that just occurred, sifting through meaning or foreshadowing. One way to avoid this latter bad habit is to bunch the observations at the end of a scene, Probst says. That way you can more easily see which are necessary and which redundant.
The problem may be that you don’t trust the reader to follow your meaning, or it might mean you don’t trust yourself as a writer. “I wonder if this tendency to overwrite stems from an insecurity about whether I’m skillful enough to convey something real without resorting to repetition, reflection, and talking-to-oneself about the old and obvious—all the devices that are meant to flash: Important Stuff Here!” Probst writes.
Probst recommends reading your manuscripts to find places where you convey a point more than once. Would a smart reader need this reiteration? Could you make your point stronger with fewer words?
She also suggests paying attention as you read. When and how to you “get” what a writer is saying? How did the writer convey this information? Probst suggests that by imagining a thoughtful, intelligent reader, you can level up yourself as well, to a more thoughtful and intelligent writer.
