Subtlety in Writing
A good friend of mine recently sent me a manuscript for a novella he’s writing, seeking advice on where he could improve things. Ignoring the fact that he is an excellent writer, and far more proficient a word-smith than I, I’ve taken the time to read and respond, which brings me to a my key point of the day.
How can one person give accurate feedback on the relative subtlety of certain plot elements? I’ll admit I have something of a reputation for being a savant when it comes to predicting the outcome of movies or books. Call it a gift, or just a sign of my dramatic overexposure to the various media, but I can pick out the bad guy in a thriller almost from his first appearance on-screen or in print. Give me in the vaguest hint of foreshadowing, and I’ll have the solution nailed to the wall. So when I’m evaluating his story, and I think something is too blatant or obvious, does that mean he should reduce or eliminate it?
On one hand, I’d tend to say yes, because the effect of being truly surprised at a plot twist is a great feeling, and one which should be relished by any audience. On the other hand, it is supremely annoying to have a story throw a twist at you, completely out of the blue, for which there was little to no advance hinting. It’s much more satisfying to go back and notice all the subtle details that pointed to the grand switch at the finale than to just have it thrust upon you as a fait accompli. So if he increases the subtlety of his hints, and thus strands a large portion of his audience in the land of arbitrary plot twists, he would be reducing the quality of his novel for those readers.
Which brings to mind the question: how subtle is too subtle? Given that humanity is composed of such a variety of personalities, how do you judge where the line should be drawn? Should you attempt to keep your hints so subtle that only the greatest masterminds can spot them in advance, or just subtle enough that the majority don’t quite catch it?
July 30th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
To answer the question of subtlety one has but to consider the audience that is the aim of the project. If one is writing with intellectual elites as the target audience, then there is probably no such thing as “too subtle”. On the other hand, if the audience is somewhat less sophisticated, then the author must consider how the various plot elements will be perceived by the middle of that target audience.
Every story and every idea originates from the context of our own intellectual level as writers. From there, we must filter what we are taking for granted based on our own experiences from those who have a more general background. In some cases this is as simple as explaining what certain acronyms mean when they first occur. In all cases, however, we must understand that there are those who know or intuitively understand far more or far less than we do. Given this fact, it is important that we gather feedback from several different sources, of which a majority are in the target audience. If one person found the foreshadowing to be too obvious, but almost everyone else found it to be about right, the writer will know that he/she is probably on the right track.