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| Too often, people seem to 'miss' the point
of my story although I think it's clear. Is this a writer or
a reader problem? |
For lack of a better term, let's call this 'author awareness.'
That is, the author's awareness of the reader...
Although writers sometimes assign ‘blame’ to readers
for not understanding a work or for missing the point, it’s
best to keep in mind that readers have the final say. A writer
is never going to please every reader, but if most readers who
look at your work ‘don’t get it’, it could
very well be that your message is suffering a breakdown somewhere
between your imagination and the page. New writers often make
two mistakes: they over-explain to the point of reader fatigue
or they under-explain to the point of reader confusion. Take
reader comments seriously. Although it’s often difficult,
look at your work critically and ask yourself some questions:
Is the story on the page inadequately
told?
Without thinking, it’s easy for a writer to assume that
the reader knows everything the writer knows. But of course
the reader does not. Make sure you write accurately and fully
enough so your reader won’t be left in the dark.
Is your story under control?
A writer needs to be in control of his or her story. When you
begin a piece, you may have no idea where it will go, but in
developing the story, you begin to form it into the precise
shape that will fulfill its purpose and transfer your intention
accurately to a reader. Without control, the best a writer can
hope for is a stroke of luck.
Have I put in too much detail, even though
I think it reads well?
Ernest Hemingway said that if you could find nothing to take
out of a story without harming it, it was a good story. He also
said that if you particularly liked and admired a sentence you
had written, you should take it out. In other words, he felt
that writing should never call attention to itself. If the experience
on the page is to move front and center, then the writing needs
to ‘disappear.’
EXERCISE: Look at your story as a
reader, rather than as a writer. Is everything in the story
critical to the story's purpose? Is everything in the story
accurate to the end you're after? Have you made assumptions
that a reader will interpret things properly, rather than guiding
the reader toward the story's purpose? Can you identify the
axis on which the story turns? Because if you can't, your story
isn't under tight enough control to cause the reader to be able
to do so. |
