Never Always Trust a Reader
A writer is only as good as his word.
Before today’s essay, a request for those interested.
I have a new literary story, the first draft finished just today, and I’m looking for some beta readers to give me their input.
From the Literary Theory series
I’ve been reading “Patty Cake” by
. It’s a Stephen King-like story about a man haunted by a nursery rhyme. The main character is a school principal who must keep his homosexuality closeted for fear of how the parents will react, despite being an a serious relationship with a man who wants the world to know. The suspense is realistic and builds slowly in a way that doesn’t ruin things by moving too fast or revealing too much.If I were to offer a critique, the first old-hat advice I’d give is trust the reader. One key chapter I’ve read twice because of a forced time gap in my reading, and so an example there is vivid on my mind. A character places an item on an end table, and then we’re told that there are end tables on either side of the sofa. That’s my entire complaint. Not a big deal, but if your character places something on an end table, I’ve already added an end table to the scene. Trust me.
And trusting the reader is one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn, because in my drafting process, I’m often discovering the story as I write and capturing the moment’s imagination on the page. It’s not always that way, but when it is, I’m liable to give redundant information.
My other process is the opposite, to guide my imagination by what the words create. The two approaches create very different styles, and this second if far less likely to have that problem; neither process solves another issue I have, however, and that’s taking the “trust the reader” advice too far.
I’d like to talk about it.