On keeping your reader focused on the right mystery

Sometimes building suspense for the reader means making sure they know what they’re supposed to have suspense about.

This can mean some level of over-explaining. There’s so much in the writer’s head that never makes it to the page, but there’s also a lot that’s implicitly obvious to us that we don’t realize isn’t clear to a reader (this is one good reason to have a beta reader at the very least look over your work before submitting it to an audience). 

One thing I’ll sometimes do is explain as much as I can about what the rules of the story are upfront (particularly in stories that have a lot of secondary world building), and allow the characters to question the mystery that I want the reader to wonder about. Some writers are a bit more cagey and subtle than I am, maybe it’s an ADHD/spectrum thing where I’m over explaining (like right now, lol) because I’m afraid of not being understood.

But personally, I’ve never really seen an audience get mad because they fully grasped what was going on and the rules of how the story is going to work. They might get bored or exasperated, but in general people don’t mind the story recap at the beginning of a tv episode, they don’t mind the reminder of how stuff works, or what’s going on. But they don’t like being confused. 

One way as a writer that you can make sure that the reader/audience knows what to focus on is literally pointing them to it. “Here’s all the circumstances around the murder, given in extreme detail. What we don’t know, and what the characters are also wondering, is the identity of the murderer.” Having the murderer’s identity and some lingering questions about why exactly everyone cares about this murder, or why this particular detective is in town solving it, may already be too many mysteries depending on the length and complexity of the story. Your audience especially shouldn’t be wondering about extraneous mysteries if you don’t intend them to be wondering about those things. That’s another reason to get a second pair of eyes on complex stories. 

Mysteries provide an element of cognitive engagement for your reader, which is one way to get them hooked on your story. (The first three books of the Harry Potter series in particular were in fact mysteries, one reason for their enduring popularity IMO.) Readers like to be cognitively engaged and asking questions. But they don’t want to feel dumb because they don’t have all the relevant facts, because you haven’t provided them or you pulled a fast one on them. In general, they want to be there with the character in terms of knowledge level, maybe even more informed than the character if you don’t want your story to feel claustrophobic.

 For example, if it’s a “who done it?” don’t have the murderer not even show up in the story until they get pulled out of nowhere, it pisses everyone off and it makes them feel cheated. Don’t pull a surprise twist that has no lead up, or have scenes floating around with no connection to other scenes because it would be “a cool reveal” (*coughWestworldcough*). This also helps keep your reader from wondering if stuff is there on purpose or not. I’ve seen readers forgive a lot of writerly sins, but the only one I’ve never seen them forgive is the writer not knowing their own story and all its details better than the reader does.

Give your readers all the tools you can, and don’t be afraid to give them obvious signposts to what you want them worrying about, so that they stay focused and engaged with the narrative and you can guide them through a satisfying experience.

geniusbee:

PACIFIC ARCANA: TUMULTUS KICKSTARTER IS LIVE

I was lucky enough to get to do the STAR for this project, featuring the brightest star in my sky lmao Hermann!! 

Hermann Gottlieb stands alone at the edge of the world, the only one who can navigate the chaotic alien realm while keeping his footing squarely on Earth. The Star represents his inner strength and ability to maintain his humanity while delving into the drift. Only he can save Newt, only he can keep this balance, and with this card upright he faces the challenge without hesitation. With the card reversed however, he is at risk of losing his footing, falling into the churning seas where kaiju and Precursers lurk. 

I got super emotional making this one, because the Star is all about inner strength, hope, perseverance and determination, which are all qualities that make Hermann my very favorite character. I also ofc gotta point out that this is a pastiche of “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich. Not only is that painting a sort of ode to exploration and climbing peaks, but it was the cover of my first copy of Frankenstein, which is GDT’s favorite book and it all comes back around. 

Oooh, I’m gonna have some fun with hacker culture in the Kidnapping AU, let me tell you. Like the fact it’s goddamn near impossible to evade CCTV cameras in any major city these days. 

You can be tracked by such a ludicrous number of modern objects these days, it’s insane. Highway cameras, your cell phone (which is constantly transmitting your location to local cell towers and requires no subpoena in most places for the police to access), your credit card, ATMs even if you withdraw to pay cash, your face on CCTV cameras that are plastered to literally every surface at every angle in every major city, and other people’s cameras. A guy set off a failed bomb on a side street in NYC and they found him in thirty-six hours. And it’s only getting more intense. 

Even if you managed to evade facial recognition (which btw a hat and sunglasses is not enough to do because what the camera looks for is the bone structure of your face which can’t be altered even with makeup or anything short of major surgery) even then we’re not even using facial recognition in advanced cases anymore. We’re analyzing the way you walk because it’s found to be more unique than a finger print in identifying you.  Privacy is dead, get over it, indeed.

not-mitchell:

blue-author:

soradiesinkh3:

autumnyte:

collapsed:

my hero

I was worried that the cleaner might have lost her job over this, but apparently the company that employs her stood up for her and said she was just doing her job. 

Now I can comfortably lol. 

god bless you lady cause these white ppl out of hand

If modern art is supposed to challenge the viewer by posing the question, “What is art, really?”, it needs to be prepared for viewers to answer that question.

Art: what is art, really?
Cleaning Lady: not this

Asylum – unwittingcatalyst – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (TV) [Archive of Our Own]

unwittingcatalyst:

For Zari Tomaz Week 2018, Day 3:  Favorite Relationship

This story is about several of Zari’s friendships on the Waverider, and also about the aftermath for her of the ep “Daddy Darhkest”:

In the days after she met young Nora Darhk, Zari found herself drifting into a closed-in space inside of herself, waking already on edge with little sense of having gotten real rest and with heavy darkness pushing her down into cramped spaces. Sometimes, she turned a corner in a corridor on the ship only to find her heart suddenly pounding, her head dizzy, her feet unsteady on the metal floor.

Maybe it was seeing the inside of a mental institution only a decade or so removed from her own time spent in a similar place. Maybe it was the despair in Nora Darhk’s eyes, or the knowledge that the girl had spent two more decades institutionalized and preyed upon by a monster before they met her and she tried to kill them. Maybe it was even the moment Zari had been about to be skewered with glass shards by the demon inside the girl, though that moment had been over before Zari had been able to begin to feel anything but numb disbelief.

But now, now she felt the panic, but not at that, so much. As though being wheeled around that asylum had unlocked something in her, Zari was feeling terrors she’d shut away for years.

Thanks to my beta readers @purpleyin, @becauseitallmatters, and @timetravelingpalmer!!!

Asylum – unwittingcatalyst – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (TV) [Archive of Our Own]