I’ve abandoned reading many stories because the authors don’t understand that Story is all about the revealing (or not) of information to the reader. What does the reader need to know, and when does thon need to know it?
Failing to understand that concept shows up in several ways. The first is the extreme of not revealing something critical. I referenced that last week in learning from a “bad” book: that a character’s sexuality had only been mentioned once, but it was the vital clue to solving a mystery.
More often, though, the writer – possibly in an attempt to make sure the reader understands something – repeats the same information multiple times.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; by page 250, readers sometimes need to be reminded of something that was mentioned on page 25 (assuming that thing is relevant/critical information).
However, when a writer has characters discussing (or, sometimes worse, thinking about) executing Plan A, and then shows the execution of Plan A – both of these scenes in some detail – that’s repetition, not reminder, and it kick the reader right out of the story
Waitaminute! I already read this!
And what then? Does the reader continue reading? Well, maybe, if everything else is interesting enough. But the reader’s trust has been tested, and the reader is much less likely to get back into the story.
Often, the planning stage is written in large swaths of internal thoughts and/or narrative summary – another thing that tests a reader’s trust because most people’s internals are just not that interesting to read. The reader starts to skim along, looking for the next “good part,” however “good part” is defined by the individual reader.
But the biggest problem is figuring out what needs to be actually dramatized in the story and what can merely be told to the reader in a couple of sentences.
I’m currently reading a 225K+ word story (still in progress; no idea how long it’s planned for, or if the author plans stories ahead of writing at all) about the reconstruction of Wizarding Britain after the Battle of Hogwarts. It’s a great concept, and the author is generally competent.
However, there are entire scenes that are repetitive, or in some cases irrelevant because, say, one character helps another character dress for a meeting. The next scene is the meeting, and all the relevant information is revealed during that scene.
This is happening often enough that I’m debating whether to continue reading, despite being interested in the particular take on how reconstruction might happen. I’m about 2/3 through what has been posted, and it feels … well, a bit like a slog, to be honest. I keep waiting for something to happen that’s, well, surprising.
I understand that some planning scenes and such are necessary, but is it really necessary to have scenes depicting: (1) a meeting to discuss offering a proposal to character A; (2) the actual proposal to character A; (3) character A accepting the proposal after thinking about it; and then (4) the results/aftermath of the proposal and the actions character A takes as a result?
(Worse, to me: Do we really need those same four scenes – with minor variations – for characters C, F, and M through Q?)
For me, the answer is no. At the very least, the third scene could be omitted without much loss and the first scene doesn’t need to be in any great detail because the second scene is detailed (or vice versa). The second and fourth scenes are, to my internal sense of pacing, the critical ones, and those should have detail and tension.
I’m sure the writer would disagree with me, because clearly thon feels those scenes are necessary (or so we assume; why write them otherwise?), and that’s fine. There’s room for all kinds of stories out there, and nobody can possibly read them all, much less like them all.
The point is, as with so many things, to be aware of what you’re writing and why you’re writing it.
STATE OF THE SCRIBE: 45,000 words in on “Child of Iron,” and the pieces are finally coming together. I think. I’ve started a re-read from the beginning to make sure all the pieces are at least on the table, and then, with a bit of grace, I can dive back in to making words at a reasonable rate.
