annleckie:

rembrandtswife:

annleckie:

cthonical:

gallifrey-feels:

Fanfic authors: READ THE WHOLE FUCKING PAGE

THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE LESSONS YOU CAN LEARN AS A WRITER. I SAY THIS AS A READER AND A PROFESSIONAL GENRE EDITOR.

I’m gonna argue with this just a bit.

“You do not keep the audience’s interest by giving it information, but by withholding information, except that which is absolutely necessary for comprehension.”

I think this is almost right, it’s just stated in a way that might (often does IMO) lead to problems. It’s stated in a way that, IMO, glosses over something really important.

Keep in mind, this is all IMO. 

One doesn’t keep the audience’s interest by withholding information. One keeps the audience’s interest by giving them exactly the information they need at that moment.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’ve said almost exactly the same thing as above. Except the logical conclusion of the above advice is to withhold information in order to produce interest–which can lead to stuff like those stories in slush that begin by resolutely refusing to tell you anything but making sure you know there’s something the writer isn’t telling you, like that’s going to produce suspense and interest, but it doesn’t. The audience has to care about the information before withholding it will get you anything but annoyance.

This is the “except that which is absolutely necessary for comprehension” in the above advice, but that’s actually the hard part here. That’s the bit that takes a lot of practice and observation. 

So it’s not that I disagree with the basic advice, it’s just I really wish people would stop framing interest and suspense as a product of withheld information because that’s really only the most surface part of it. I wish people would talk more about controlling the pace and flow of information and about what the reader does and doesn’t need to know, in order to get the effect you’re after.

That said, newbie writers nearly always overestimate just how much they  have to tell the reader for their story to make sense, and so often one sees the long prologue explaining the history of the universe, or the kind of scenes called “California scenes” here, though I just call them bad characterization because have you ever heard anyone having a conversation like that, ever in your life? Maybe once? Yeah, most people don’t talk that way.

Also, the thing about SECRETS sweet Mithras please no more automatically trying to make your character deep and real by giving them a TRAGIC SEEKRIT please I can set my watch by it. There are other ways to get depth and interest in characters. Thank you for listening.

TLDR the advice here is ok but is framed in a way that’s A)very common but B) IMO very unhelpful if you want to get to the next step.

Hopefully I am not spoiling anything for @annleckie, but there is an analysis of the opening pages of her Ancillary Justice that shows what Breq is telling us, what she’s not telling us, and what she’s implying by her narrative, and it is masterful. It shows why I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. I just can’t remember where I read it. 😦

I think that’s this post here.