Preserving the Act of Discovery
By Tracy Hahn-Burkett | February 26, 2011 |
Day after day, the thing that keeps me coming back to the blank page is the chance that in the process of filling that page with words, I just might discover something new. I might learn something I didn’t know about my characters or the world they inhabit, or maybe I’ll even uncover a hidden truth about me. Caught up in the thrill of one of these “eureka” moments, I often want to climb atop my literary rooftop and shout my epiphany to the world. But I’m learning that sometimes, for the sake of the reader, I need to keep my discoveries to myself.
For example: I set a scene in my WIP in a favorite park that in springtime is graced with an abundance of a certain fragrant, flowering tree. I framed my characters’ actions with the trees’ blossoming branches and petals that drifted away on soft breezes. Only later did I recall that in real life, those trees had been planted at that very location to symbolize friendship. Aha! My book is about a friendship! I was so blown away by this coincidence that I began to sow those trees everywhere in my WIP. My manuscript reeked of them. Yikes; time to prune.
My inclination to broadcast my discoveries also showed up in the form of a character trait. As it turns out, one of my main characters is very protective of the people he loves. He’s so protective, in fact, that he frequently makes decisions he views to be in their best interests without consulting them. Naturally his decisions can cause considerable problems as their consequences unfold.
I didn’t plan this trait in my character. He simply acted in this manner time after time as I wrote, until I noticed the pattern. When I realized what he was doing, I was pleased. The overprotectiveness is a good trait: it flows naturally from this character’s backstory, it contributes to his motivation and it creates plenty of conflict. I knew it was helping me to create a three-dimensional, relatable character.
But almost as soon as I identified this trait, another of my characters hurried to point it out to him: “You’re always making decisions for other people. Why do you have to be so overprotective?”
Time to hit the DELETE key.
My character’s trait emerged naturally, through showing, and that’s how it should be. (Yes, it’s the old “show, don’t tell.”) A reader might think explicitly about his overprotectiveness, or she might never consciously put that thought into words. Either way, she doesn’t need me to spell it out for her via another character.
Chris Abouzeid recently wrote at Beyond the Margins about the writer as programmer “of the human mind and heart[,]” noting that “most of the time, good writers do get what they expect.”
When they describe the horror of mustard gas seeping through a soldier’s mask and burning holes into his lungs, nine out of ten readers—sitting in the comfort of their own homes—will hold their breath. And a well-crafted sex scene, delivered with the right mix of passion and mystery (and maybe a dash of anatomy), will get readers hot and bothered every time—even though there is nothing more exciting than ink and paper in front of them.
Chris is right, of course. If we do our jobs well, our words transport readers to worlds of our creation, permitting readers to feel what our characters feel, know what they know and even believe, if only briefly, that they have actually lived bits of lives that existed in times and places outside of their own temporal and spatial reality.
But to create this illusion in its fullest effect, we need to get out of our readers’ way a little, too. In my examples above, a reader may never put together the pieces of the puzzle to think consciously that my character is overprotective or to make the specific connection between the tree and the theme of friendship, but that’s all right. That reader may find something else in the details of my characters’ story that speaks to him more, something I never imagined because I’ve never lived the reader’s life.
Through my words I need to evoke certain experiences, thoughts and feelings, to provide arrows and road maps to the main points I want to make. If a reader doesn’t feel sympathy with a character who has just lost a loved one in a fire, then I’ve failed to do my job. If my theme is friendship and no one gets that: again, I’ve gone off-track.
But I have to be careful not to club readers over the head. Because if I do, then first of all, they’re going to get a headache and put down my book. Second, if by some miracle they do keep reading, they’re going to become impatient because I will have left no room for them to think for themselves and blend their interpretations with mine. Reading is all about discovery, and I’d like to think that my WIP might someday become a book that leads readers to make discoveries of their own.
(Image courtesy Deviant Art’s “ivory-rose.”)
Tracy Hahn-Burkett is a writer and public policy advocate who has written everything from speeches for a U.S. senator to texts seeking proof-of-life from her kids in college. She’s published dozens of essays, columns, articles, reviews and a story, and teaches writing for advocacy. She currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband, cat, and dog, and she is revising her first novel. Her website is TracyHahnBurkett.com. You can find her on Threads as @tracyhahnburkett.
Great post, Tracy! I love those moments of insight, too, when you start to see the blueprint you never knew existed for a story; they’re what makes this whole gig for me. And I agree that sometimes it’s best to hold back and let the reader discover the story in his/her own way. After Last Will was published, I wrote in the margins of one of my books, though, so that I would never forget the discoveries I’d made while writing the story.
Great post, Tracy! I love to discover as I write but I am definitely guilty of signposting things too much for the reader — writing in the equivalent of big neon arrows of FORESHADOWING and THEME and whatnot. But letting the reader discover things on his/her own is one of the most important things in fiction (and certainly what I enjoy most as a reader myself.) So we have to manage it carefully.
Terrific post, Tracy. I think one of the very most difficult things for a writer is finding that place between hitting a reader over the head and failing to make something evident. I used to sit in workshops and time after time, I would think I had been smacking people with some obvious symbol or something like and people would say: “I didn’t get that AT ALL.” Or I would think I was being so subtle, and the response would be: “Way too directive.”
It’s so hard to get it right. And so helpful to read something like this. These days, I try to stay out of the reader’s way, because more and more I think that if readers feel like they have some role in figuring the story out, making their own connections, playing a creative role really, it becomes more meaningful for them. (Emphasis on I TRY. . .)
Thank you so much for this post!
I agree with you, Tracy, the wonder of the discovery is the thing that keeps bringing me back to this too. I’m continually amazed by what comes out, and then seems to have been so blatant, both in character traits and in theme.
In a John Vorhaus post just the other day he said something to the effect of ‘whether the phenomena is logical or mystical is beside the point,’ and I agree. I tend to ascribe a spiritual aspect to it, but in any case there is much to be learned, for writer and reader.
I also agree we need to be on guard against wanting to ‘shout our epiphanies from the literary rooftop.’ (Love that!) I’m prone to it too, so thanks for the reminder. Great post!
Awesome! I love the idea of the balance that has to take place between the writer and the audience. The writer is in control as far as letting the reader in on all the details, but it’s up to the reader to uncover al the secrets. I’m not a professional writer and I’m just starting to practice my craft so this is a very insightful post. It’s the little nuances like this that has drawn me to writing in the first place. Thanks!
somedaysomelife.blogspot.com
Excellent post, and a great reality check for us all. I know I often wield my own literary club with far too heavy a hand, particularly when flailing through a first draft. I go to great lengths to make sure readers see that I’m making a Very Important Point, then I have my characters observe what a Very Important Point is being made, and later I have those characters refer back to that Very Important Point – you know, just in case the reader missed it the first two times.
I think I’m sometimes too influenced by one of my favorite films, Home for the Holidays. I watch it every winter to emotionally brace myself for the inevitable onslaught of stress that occurs when families and holidays intersect, and to remind myself that I really don’t have it all that bad. But there is a pivotal scene near the end, which the director actually introduces by putting the words “The Point” on an all-black screen. I love that movie, and I think that captioning style works well in that instance, but I suspect that I shouldn’t rely solely on that mechanism for telegraphing the points I try to make in my own work.
Writing well is an act of trust. It requires trust in your own ability to get your point across without a sledgehammer, and trust in your reader to be sufficiently clever and emotionally available to absorb that point. Thanks for reminding us of that.
Really enjoyed this post. I’m definitely guilty of wielding the club at times. Learning that finesse of leaving readers to draw their own conclusions is to me one of the most difficult things in writing.
Great points! I love the feeling of discovery, too, but we have to strive to preserve the same experience for our readers. Awesome stuff!
Tracy —
So glad I saw this —
I am so with you in this struggle. It is so hard, sometimes, to see your own writing the way a fresh reader will and know what they will know. Even trickier as you move on a draft or two and the shadows of past drafts are still in your head.
I especially like your point about different readers finding different things in the same character.
Thanks.
Kathy
Great post! I try to work on adding foreshadowing and just adding little showing details, but of course telling details do crop in, but hopefully they will all get picked up in editing.
Great post, and timely for me… I’m slogging through revisions. It seems to be a constant struggle between adding in details in the early drafts, and rubbing them out in the later ones. The trick I’m struggling with now is trying to keep perspective!
Therese, that’s a great idea. I’ll have to remember to do that myself when I get the chance (fingers crossed) in the future!
Jael and Robin, I agree that finding that line can be tough because it’s so subjective. Jael, I’ve gotten into energetic “discussions” with people over questions such as whether a certain bit of foreshadowing in a book we’ve just read was too obvious or just right. And Robin, funny you should mention workshops. I just workshopped a big chunk of my WIP, and the feedback I got on one of my characters was so enlightening, I spent a week reassessing everything I thought I knew about him. I wasn’t using him to his potential, and a reader would feel this and be turned off. But in other places, I heard, “We get it already. Enough.” Readers for drafts are invaluable.
Vaughn, it does feel spiritual sometimes, doesn’t it? In any event, it’s irresistible!
Chris, welcome, and glad you enjoyed the post. I hope you make many wonderful discoveries in your writing!
Keith, I love the idea that “writing is an act of trust,” a mutual trust between writer and reader. (But if sledgehammers are required in those first drafts to get the story out, then I say use them. That’s what revision is for.)
Definitely know what you’re talking about — the delete key is my best friend! I read a lot of WIPs for friends and this is one of the things I learn again and again, to allow readers to discover things on their own, because it drives me insane in other projects. But as many times as I learn it, I still need my delete key. ;)
My critique partner says over and over to me that I need to trust my reader. I want to etch that in the wood of my desk because ultimately that’s who it’s all about: the reader. The story is a gift to the reader, but if we hand it to her unwrapped, we removed some of the joy of the experience.
Great, thoughtful post!
Tracy! Will you please come over every and hit me on the head when I commit this crime (which I probably do daily).
I loved this line:
“But almost as soon as I identified this trait, another of my characters hurried to point it out to him . . .”
Thank goodness for the opportunity to revise our work!
Erika, I love the metaphor of the gift-wrapped present. That’s definitely how I feel when I pick up a new book from a favorite author. From a writing perspective, what a lovely aspiration for our work.
Most excellent and eloquent! This is precisely the reason “show, don’t tell” is THE writing advice of our time. I’m going to share this with my writing group, thanks!
I’m never sure what’s the best balance of showing and telling. It is a big part of a writer’s voice. Some do it seldom, others often.
At times I’ve loved it when a character analyzes another’s motivations, etc., because it’s helped me identify the unreliability of their POV or, conversely, provided me with huge insight into human behavior. I’m an analyzer, myself, so provided it’s consistent with the character and articulated with their voice, I’ll go along for the ride. But I do take your point about leaving room for the reader. There needs to be space for co-creation. Thank goodness for betas and critiquers, to point out where it’s too much.
Love this, Tracy. “Reading is all about discovery.” And it’s a wonder how much goes on beneath the surface to create that.
Very good points. I know I am often tempted to be explicit about themes or patterns, but it is far better to relax and let the readers discover them or not, and also discover the patterns you didn’t know you had.
Thanks for posting this. Good food for thought.
It is really interesting how that works, right? We want to make room for exploration and discovery but try our best not to loose the reader completly along the way and make sure they aren’t lost. As a designer, I struggle with this too. I want to create innovate site constructs but I want it to be usable too.
I want me writing to be open but if it’s too open, people might not get it! Ah! So much : )
Love this, great blog!
[…] to read my latest piece about writing? Come on over to the awesome fiction writing blog, Writer Unboxed, where my latest post is up today: … See you there! […]
Hi Tracy. Great post – the ‘eureka’ moments are what we all work towards! I very much like the idea of your characters evolving themselves as you put down more words on paper.
Will retweet to our followers so they can benefit from your insight into the journey of writing.
All the best
Adam
http://www.iWriteReadRate.com
Hi Tracy. Great post – the ‘eureka’ moments are what we all work towards! I very much like the idea that characters evolve naturally the more words you put down on paper.
Will retweet to our followers so they can benefit from your insight into the journey of writing.
All the best
Adam
iWriteReadRate.com