What the readers need to know
Jul. 2nd, 2005 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranTriggered by a post from pollyc.
I've been trying to think in terms of "what the readers want to know" instead of just "what they need to know". The trick seems to be to try to get them to want to know the right things...
Expanding this a bit more: this fits back with my earlier thoughts about story premise. One way to make sure the reader wants to know what they need to know is to give them the right premise to make them wonder. One of the hallmarks of some of the clunky passages in the WIR are bits of information that just don't seem to fit in with the previous sentences. There's a bit of a feeling of "why are you telling me this now?" The information doesn't fit in with the questions raised by the starting premise. The solution seems to be either to change the premise or to find newer, later premises to raise the right questions.
Another way is to make sure that what they need to know is interesting in itself, and if it is only interesting from some angles, then you need to be sure to find one of the angles and use it to present the information. Another way again is work out what else they want to know and tell them that, while sneaking in the other info underneath.
pollyc.I've been trying to think in terms of "what the readers want to know" instead of just "what they need to know". The trick seems to be to try to get them to want to know the right things...
Expanding this a bit more: this fits back with my earlier thoughts about story premise. One way to make sure the reader wants to know what they need to know is to give them the right premise to make them wonder. One of the hallmarks of some of the clunky passages in the WIR are bits of information that just don't seem to fit in with the previous sentences. There's a bit of a feeling of "why are you telling me this now?" The information doesn't fit in with the questions raised by the starting premise. The solution seems to be either to change the premise or to find newer, later premises to raise the right questions.
Another way is to make sure that what they need to know is interesting in itself, and if it is only interesting from some angles, then you need to be sure to find one of the angles and use it to present the information. Another way again is work out what else they want to know and tell them that, while sneaking in the other info underneath.
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Date: 2005-07-02 03:47 pm (UTC)I also know, as a reader who discusses books with other readers, we're not always looking for the same things nor do we actually see the same things in a book we've both/all read. I've had spirited discussions with people who read a specific scene a different way than I did which colored both our opinions of the story in different ways. And because I know I can't be sure anyone will read what I wrote as I do or as I intended, I worry instead of it working for me, and hoping it will for others, or at least for the editor I hope someday will be reading my ms. :)