One aspect of story that writers often fail to appreciate is the role of the reader in their work. While you don’t want to hold back any important information, there’s plenty of opportunity to let your readers fill in the blanks.
In a post on Writer Unboxed, Liz Michalski says writers can engage their readers by leaving space and shadow for their imaginations to work. “By not putting everything on the page, we hold room for the story to unfurl in our readers’ imaginations,” Michalski explains. “We give them the framework but let them tell the specifics to themselves.” She offers some tips for making that space, including:
- Developing a rich backstory. “Once you have that backstory, it will inform everything your characters do, from how they act to who they date to what they like to eat,” Michalski says. “You can allude to it as needed, but you don’t have to put it all on the page.”
- Limiting internal dialogue and memories. You don’t need to share every little thing that comes into your protagonist’s head.
- Speaking shorthand. “If snappy dialogue isn’t your thing, nicknames, insider jokes and language are also ways to do this,” Michalski says.
- Using small gestures. How characters react to each other’s pain or other circumstances can tell you a lot about their backstory without having to go into detail.
- Keeping it offstage. Let your characters refer to past events without explaining them, or talk about family and friends who were meaningful but no longer alive. Unless the character or event is pivotal to your plot, your reader will fill in the blanks.
- Putting in just enough. “It’s a fine line between firing a reader’s imagination and annoying them with plot and character arc holes,” Michalski says. “Make sure you have your story read at least once by someone who comes to it completely cold — no cheating by telling them the story in advance. Take note if they find gaps and figure out how many breadcrumbs you need to help them back on the path.”
