Spelling It All Out
I can be a total pain in the ass to go to the movies with. Because, pretty much without fail, I figure it out. All of it. We're in the first scene of a thriller, and I will say to my movie-mate, "Well, he did it." Or, "The cop is crooked." Or, "She's sleeping with her boss." Or, "She's going to get blackmailed." Whatever.
I consider it an occupational hazard of being a novelist. Sixth Sense . . . yeah. I figured out about the kid and dead people. Crying Game . . . the Adam's apple, baby! (I haven't been friends with trannies for nothing, you know!)
Going along with that, I pretty much hate when a book stops dead in its tracks in order for the bad guy to confess or the pieces to be spelled out. Same with a movie. Come on! A REAL assassin isn't going to stop and give a speech. He's going to fire the friggin' gun and kill you. Confession isn't good for his soul. He lost his soul ages ago.
HOWEVER, I have found out, firsthand, that sometimes an author does need to spell it out. A couple of times, I have been approached by fans who ask me, "Why didn't . . .?" and then query me regarding some plot twist. I will THINK I spelled it all out. I will THINK it's obvious. But maybe I'm too close to it.
So therein is the delicate dance. Leave too much unanswered and you frustrate your reader. Hold their hand too much and you bore them.
Anyone else struggle with this dilemma--as reader or writer!
I consider it an occupational hazard of being a novelist. Sixth Sense . . . yeah. I figured out about the kid and dead people. Crying Game . . . the Adam's apple, baby! (I haven't been friends with trannies for nothing, you know!)
Going along with that, I pretty much hate when a book stops dead in its tracks in order for the bad guy to confess or the pieces to be spelled out. Same with a movie. Come on! A REAL assassin isn't going to stop and give a speech. He's going to fire the friggin' gun and kill you. Confession isn't good for his soul. He lost his soul ages ago.
HOWEVER, I have found out, firsthand, that sometimes an author does need to spell it out. A couple of times, I have been approached by fans who ask me, "Why didn't . . .?" and then query me regarding some plot twist. I will THINK I spelled it all out. I will THINK it's obvious. But maybe I'm too close to it.
So therein is the delicate dance. Leave too much unanswered and you frustrate your reader. Hold their hand too much and you bore them.
Anyone else struggle with this dilemma--as reader or writer!
posted by Erica Orloff at 11:53 AM
19 Comments:
This post immediately made me think of Gabriel in "the Dead" by James Joyce. He was way to worried about spelling it out or going over everyone's head with his dinner speech.
Sometimes things are not clear to people. You can't possibly write a story that is clear to everyone all the time. Have you ever tried to read the directions for assemblying Ikea furniture? There is no mystery there. It is all laid out in front of you. Couldn't get much easier... until you read their directions.
A novel is so much more complex. Of course you are going to get some confusion, even if you "spell it all out", several times. That's one of the great things about reading is discovering that you don't know something. A puzzle is that golden nugget of mystery that you get to figure out. And if you can't, ask your friend or even the author.
But hey, what the hell do I know? I'm still among the unpublished masses... :)
Hi Ewoh:
I like to explain certain plot twists . . . but I also know it would be crazy to recount an entire book. If a reader missed Hint A or Hint B, then if he or she reads it a second time or discusses it, they might get it--and if not, hopefully it didn't impair their enjoyment. But it definitely is a tricky line in the sand.
And hell, unpubbed or pubbed, we're all in these dilemmas togther!
E
I think that if/when ROGUE does sell, the ending is the first thing the editor will make me change in her revision letter. Because I *don't* spell it out. I don't have the Big Villain Speech. I kinda want my readers to figure it out, you know? Is that bad? Not enough of a payoff?
If we ever go to the movies together, Erica, I'm going to make sure you have enough raisinettes to keep that mouth of yours busy. :)
My wip is strictly in first-person. So, of course, the readers' revelations are limited to the perceptions of my protag. That makes it all the more difficult, I think, because lots of things are happening behind the scenes. Some of those things will never be revealed. The trick is, choosing the right ones and the right way to reveal them. Can I pull it off? All I can do is try.
karm:
I don't know if it's bad . . . I just think it's tricky. Remember KNOCKOUT? One reviewer (at Romantic Times) hated it because she said she just didn't believe, nor was it fully explained, why or how the bad guy turned out to be the bad guy (remember the plot twist?). But I felt like I had, little by little, in scene after scene, dropped hints of jealousy and hints to his aspirations for a wealthier lifestyle and seduction of Vegas. A few other motives, too. But you know, he never gave the heroine the big "this is how I turned out to be an evil muthaf*cka speech." Some of this debate has to be taste in what you read, too.
E
Jude:
There aren't enough Raisinettes in a typical theater to shut me up that quiet if I figure it out. LOL!
And you know, I LOVE first person for that reason. Because I personally think evil cannot be fully explained and we all have to live with that. Getting that first-person explanation is enough for me, usually.
E
Erica, I think you hit on somehting there:
"Because I personally think evil cannot be fully explained and we all have to live with that."
To be/do evil is a choice, just as to be/do good is a choice. You choose through your thoughts and actions/inactions.
What would motivate one person to choose one direction ofer another is going to be different for the next person. Maybe spelling it out for the reader would make a difference, and maybe not.
Like you said, at some point it is just a matter of taste in how it all unfolds or gets told. You can't please everyone all the time.
Erica, I know what you mean about movies. Me and my husband figure it all out too.
I try to spell it all out. I have always been that way.
Ewoh:
There are some villains we just won't ever understand. As I watch what is going on nationwide in our schools, I am sickened.
E
la:
I think--no matter which side of the aisle you stand on for this question--there is still a right way and a "less right" way to spell it out. When the entire book or scene stops dead in its tracks while we get a "speech"--that's not the way to do it.
E
I think the best books and movies are the ones where there's no way to figure it out until the very end. I love the "ah ha!" moment, love to be surprised. Maybe I'm just daft, but I think the movie *Basic Instinct* (the first one), for example, succeeded on that level. All my favorite mysteries suck me into the story and then leave me magically and happily surprised.
Hi Jude:
I wasn't a huge fan of that movie . . . but agree those kinds of movies are the best of filmmaking. I loved The Usual Suspects because of that. Loved as the detective at the end put it all together just as we were.
E
I haven't seen The Usual Suspects, but you KNOW I'll have to go rent it now. :)
Jude;
I've got you watching a lot of movies. :-)
If you rent that one, then also try Heist--or any of Mamet's films.
E
Erica -- what about FIGHT CLUB? Did you figure that one out? That was one movie that absolutely BLEW ME AWAY.
Personally... I love a movie or book that doesn't spell it all out for you, or even answer it all for you. To me, the best works are the ones with an ambiguous ending, be it film or print.
My wife hates that type of work. Needless to say that I do not often get to see them in film. Only in print.
I'm not sure if I can write something like that, but I love to be the audience.
Karm:
Didn't figure that one out. Forgot about that one!
Ewoh . . . I like ambiguous better in books than film. A lot of times in film, I am most definitely looking for escapism, so I long for a neat ending, things wrapped up, a happy ending. And yes, I know I cna't alawyas accomlish that as a writer, but I am pleasantly surprised when I run into treats like that.
E
Sorry, Erica, I don't believe you figured out that Bruce Willis was dead! If you really are that good, I'll have to hate you. :)
Natalie:
SWEAR I did! :-)
It was a scene in the kids' apartment that did it for me. I don't remember exactly, but I think the mother said nothing . . . it was like Bruce wasn't there. BUT, in ALL fairness, same as with Crying Game . . . people had said there was a big twist and a huge spoiler, so I obviously went into the movie EXPECTING something huge. At first I thought maybe the kid was dead and Bruce was talking to him to pull himself out of depression following his patient's suicide. But then I figured it out.
LOL! Don't hate me.
E
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