It has occurred to me that writing a story is like teaching. You have to guide the reader into an understanding of what your story is about. You don't want to be obtrusive about it: too much 'dear readering' will make you sound bossy and chase them away. You want your writing to be more or less self-tutorial. This kind of thing is an acquired skill.

As someone who has had experience with this teaching lark, I have a few facts from experience to share with you.

Caveat: I have never taught anyone under five years of age, or over 75. Between those ages, I know what I'm talking about. But if the target audience for what you're writing lies outside that age range, you might want to take this into account. The first thing to keep in mind is that most writers suffer from certain misapprehensions at various times.

If you've never been a teacher, you might...

• Think it's bad form to mention a fact more than once. It isn't. You don't have to belabour a point, but it's good to remind people now and again of where they are, who's in the story, and what they're doing. Also throw in reminders of how things work, and any little salient points you're afraid they'll forget about.
• Assume that if you've said it, it is now indelibly etched in your listener's/reader's consciousness. They probably forgot about the memo on the bulletin board. Remind, but be subtle about it. Don't say the same thing the same way twice. IF (and only IF) it is relevant that your hero has blond hair, say so. Then say something like 'he ran his hands through his long blond hair' on another page, to remind them. No, I don't know why you would care that he had blond hair unless it was a romance novel, but say he's going to be mistaken for the blond villain and shot by the police in error? You might want to remember this.
• Believe that your mere existence guarantees you an audience, and that you don't have to woo them. Not true. Not true even if your name is usually on the bestseller list. I have put down novels by bestselling authors, and so have you. Usually because they started to bore us, or were confusing us, and we got tired of trying to figure out what was happening. Don't let this be the case with your story.
• Vastly overestimate the attention span of your audience. You aren't as riveting as you think you are. Trust me on this. And they're fickle. Find ways to keep the action focused. Go for shorter scenes, break up descriptions (or make them more entertaining). Change up the material.
• Consider it acceptable to indulge in private jokes. Nope. They'll spot them, and be annoyed at you. The same goes for jokes that are over the reader's head. Don't do it. If you even suspect that it's arcane, work in an explanation, even if you have to make one of your characters dumber so they'll ask about it. Making the audience feel dumb is the easiest way to turn them against you.
• Like to interrupt the flow and mood with irrelevant bits of humour. You cannot get away with this unless you're John Oliver, because that's his whole shtick. Anybody else will find that the audience remembers the joke but not the content.

A very true thing that was said to me once was that in theatre, you should remember that the audience wants you to succeed. They're on your side. This helps actors overcome nervousness. In writing, the very opposite is true: most readers these days are 'resistantly reading' your stuff. They are looking to poke holes in what you write. Don't believe me? Go back and read the comments on these columns, I dare you.

It's a marvelous contradiction, really: people read because they want to be entertained, to know something they didn't know before, or to be taken out of themselves. People often sign up for courses of instruction for the same reason. Somebody once said that an education is the only thing a person is willing to pay for and not get. This is because learning is work.

Reading is work, too, which is where the resistance comes from. The work part makes readers both impatient and critical. A lot of the skill in writing is not 'having a wonderful imagination' or 'finding the perfect word or phrase'. It's learning how to herd cats.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

18.05.20 Front Page

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