But Is It On the Page?

One of the most challenging aspects in bringing a story to life on the page is making sure that the story is actually on the page. As writers, we’re the gods of our stories—we know everything about our characters and their motivations as well as the plot’s trajectory. We created everything, so to us it all makes sense. And it’s really easy for our own omniscience to trick us into thinking that our clever hints to the reader are enough. The truth is, in the worlds our stories inhabit, our readers were born yesterday. Our cherished readers do need all that fantastic information we keep in our noggins to be on the page.

I frequently hear the counterargument in workshops and critique groups. We writers want to be artful. We want to create suspense. The last thing we want to be is too on the nose (that dreaded critique!). But if we examine our favorite novels and stories, we’ll see that much more often than not, those authorial greats have artfully laid everything out on the page.

The truth is: we are all too much in our heads when it comes to our own work and especially in an early draft. When I find that I’ve done this, I like to overcorrect on purpose and throw everything in in my next draft. That way, when the “everything and the kitchen sink” draft is complete and I’ve given the draft time to rest, I can step back with a critical eye and remove everything extraneous. But sometimes even this doesn’t work and the much fresher eyes of a trusted critique partner (or book coach!) is needed.

But what about that intangible quality some books have where they say something big about life or the human experience without exactly spelling it out? There is an art, for sure, in knowing what should be inferred and what needs to be clearly stated. For me, inference should be the sparest seasoning. (See Jon Ronson talk about inference in Slaughterhouse Five.) The things that should not be inferred are the bricks of the story—the things that clearly depict who your characters are, their desires, and what’s at stake. Things like setting, passage of time, who is speaking and how the characters feel or react are essential, too. If you leave too much up to the reader, the reader will get frustrated and ditch the book.

There’s more to say on this topic for sure, but for now, I challenge you to both create an “Everything In” draft and to observe how your favorite authors build their stories sentence by sentence, page by page. How much do they reveal and how much do they keep hidden?

Happy writing!