I swear I had every intention of being here over Christmas, but instead I helped my dad with his holiday tournament. So I got two days off for Christmas this year, but that's okay. You know I like to stay busy.

Today, we're going to talk about Stupid Readers

You guys think I'm a horrible person right now, but let me explain. I don't think readers are stupid. I don't even mind ghost readers (is that what we're still calling them?) You guys know I love comments (more than votes, or likes or whatever they're called now) (not to say I don't appreciate the votes/likes).

Instead of talking about what you guys might think of as stupid readers (like, you probably think I'm going to say something about readers that try to run the story and readers that demand updates (those also don't bother me either, but I know they bother a lot of people), we're going to talk about the way we treat readers while writing.

A lot of times (and I'm so guilty of this that it's not even funny), we kind of, unintentionally assume our readers are stupid. And by that I mean: we often go overboard on the telling and info dumping, because we assume readers won't get our subtle clues. And I get it. I really do. You work so, so hard to leave hints and build things up just so you can unravel them all perfectly. And a lot of times you start second guessing yourself as a writer. It's all in your head, so obviously you know all about the characters and what is happening and what is supposed to happen.

Then you start to question how much your readers know. Did you write everything like you were supposed to? Are you making your point like you wanted to? If you were the reader, would you understand what was happening?

So all too often we start assuming readers are stupid and just repeating information in basic, straightforward terms. And I think we should talk about that and ways to avoid it:

1. Explaining takes away from the momentum of the story and the importance of the moment.

A lot of times I see people craft this intense scene, filling it full of so much tension and imagery that it's like you're living in it, and right at the climax, they insist on explaining the moment they just built up to. Don't do that. Don't finish a really intense scene by telling your readers that it was intense. When a character is nervous about everything that just happened, don't tell your readers they were nervous.

This is one of those times where you have to have a delicate balance between showing and telling, because each has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you show something, you don't need to then tell about it. If you tell something, it's not always necessary to then show it happening. The balance should be equal between different pieces of information. You shouldn't balance show and tell by showing and telling the same thing.

Trust me, a lot of times I talk myself into going overboard on the information to really drive home the point I want to make, but by doing so, you're actually taking away the importance. When something is repeated in such a way that it loses meaning, then you've done yourself a disservice.

One scene I always get comments on is in Pretty Little Bones and its set up by introducing the situation: the characters are going out to Pension Mountain just to hang out because it's away from town, secluded, and a typical party spot. However, it's also mentioned in earlier parts that the town the characters live in is known for making, selling, distributing, and using illegal drugs. Pension Mountain is the the place where most of those drugs are made, sold, and used. The setting and all this information is woven through the first part of the chapter.

Our rising action is when two well known drug users show up, obviously high, and begin making threats and being beligerant (like a lot of druge dealers and doers are).

The climax is the moment when they pull out a revolver and aim it at the narrator and the three get into an intense argument while everyone else watches, too scared to do anything that might set someone off and cause more trouble. And I spend a lot of time creating this atmosphere of tension. Obviously everyone is terrified. I didn't have to tell the readers that. If someone pulls a gun on you while they're high on illegal narcotics, you're probably going to be terrified.

So this whole scene happenes and the characters are scared, but they're also trying to make themselves feel better. By the end of the scene no one believes the gun is loaded and the narrator tries to support this idea by acting calm and confident, like he's sure there are no bullets in the gun, just casings. The idea is to kind of try to make the tension slowly start to fade, so at the moment when the gun is handed over and the druggies leave, readers are (hopefully), still relieved, but also not completely nervous out of their minds.

And the last line says, "When she pulled ou the cylidar, five live rounds dropped into the floorboard."

And that's it. I didn't go on to say "My heart stopped when I realized the gun had been loaded. Everyone looked shocked when they realized we were wrong and the gun had real bullets. None of them were casings. I trembled again, feeling all the fear that had disappeared come sweeping back over me." That's unnecessary. It's boring. It takes away everything the last sentence did.

I didn't want readers to have breathing room. I didn't want them to process what had happened with the character. I wanted them to fill in the blanks. I didn't want to treat the reader like they were stupid and I didn't want to ruin that whole arc by suddenly telling everyone what they should have already gathered. I mean, that took me half a page to give an incredibly brief summary. Why would I end that by saying "oh, and the bullets were real and then I was scared because the bullets had actually been real, OMG, can you believe that!?" Don't do that. Give your readers the benefit of the doubt and remember: less is usually more.

2. Stay away from "feelings".

This is kind of like a "show don't tell" thing, even though you know I'm not a huge fan of that advice. Anyway, my advice, is to stay away from writing out directly what the character feels. Instead, show it. Don't tell me they're nervous. Show me them fidgeting. Set up the scene so intensely that I'm even nervous.

Don't tell me a character is angry. Show them starting to think irrationally. Make them get snippy in their dialogue. Give me clues that they're angry, don't say "I was so mad."

This is the kind of thing I see all too often. You spend so much time building a character and then just explain how they are and why they're that way. Any time I make a comment in critiques about maybe having the character show more emotions, the authors usually just try to fix it by telling how a character feels and that's not really effective.

So what if they're sad. Usually when people are sad, I don't really care when they say "I'm sad." Oh? Well. Sorry about that.

But I do care when I see the tears in their eyes and I can tell from the way they're staring at the wall, almost looking through it that they're somewhere else. Or when the things they used to love don't even make them smile. Or when they fake a smile but don't have any of their usually snarky, sarcastic comments or jokes. That's when I care.

Don't assume your readers don't pick up on your characters feelings. Instead, worry that you're making your characters emotions powerful enough to start grabbing the readers and making them feel the same way.

3. Don't be afraid of readers being confused or having to ask questions

A lot of times when I try to be more ambiguous and assume the readers will fill in the blanks or connect the dots without too much prompting, I do get a lot of questions. Especially on Wattpad and the other site I frequent, because the audiences are so varied and have such different backgrounds. But I love getting questions for two reasons:

1. It's a great way to meet new people and talk about different things

And

2. It lets me know there is something I need to go back and clarify (without being direct and repetitive). It lets me know I need to work on the story arc and the character develop. Not that I need to add a line that obviously clarifies what I meant.

One of my favorite parts of reading are those moments when the story is leading you in a direction but it's up to you to go there yourself. I think the scene I get the most questions about is, again, in Pretty Little Bones and it's after one of the main characters tries to commit suicide and is hospitalized. While there, the doctors tell her dad that the new medication she's been taking for a disease she has have been shown to cause suicidal thoughts and actions. So everyone, her family, friends, teachers, community, just think it was all a freaky mistake. Because she goes along with that story. It was all, more or less an accident. The pills made her do it.

And I got a lot of comments on that with people sharing their own experiences (and a lot of people saying I was providing inaccurate and unrealistic information about medication (even though I never named a specific communication and the story is nonfiction, so I'm not sure how that's unrealistic).

And everyone was relatively shocked and confused when in the next chapter, a few weeks later, the narrator finds her pill bottle. Again, I had to take a lot of time setting up the scene and again, I had to rely on the reader's to put the pieces together. All the narrator does is pick up the bottle and note how heavy it feels as he hears all the pills bouncing around inside. Then he reads the lable, with her name, the doctor, that she hasn't used any of her refills, and that she was given thirty-five pills.

Then, out of curiousity, he dumps the pills out on her bed and counts them. And the scene ends with these lines: "I counted them five times and always got the same number. There were thirty-five."

I get so many comments (most of them starting with "so wait", because everyone loves to say wait when they're connecting dots). I shouldn't have to clarify that scene with "she hadn't taken any of the pills. She had been legitimately trying to kill herself. She only lied about it being the medication because she didn't want people to know the truth."

I don't have to say any of that. The readers have all the information. There were thirty-five pills prescribed to her and she hadn't had any refills. All thirty-five pills were still in the bottle. Obviously she hadn't taken any. But I still get questions, and that's totally fine. On this platform, sometimes readers just need a moment to process what they saw or just clarify that they're on the right track to piecing together the puzzle. That's so awesome! I love those questions.

And when I get a reader that truly does not put the pieces together and does not understand what is being insinuated or implied, I don't think they're stupid. Instead, I take it as an opportunity to reevaluate my work and decide where I can add more foreshadowing, clarification, or explanation without simply stating everything blunty.

I'm sharing all of this to show you guys: it's okay for you to be ambiguous. It's okay for you to not explain every intense moment. It's okay for you to spend forever setting up a scene with all the perfect little details so you can just give the bare basics when it comes to the climax and resolution of the scene.

And as a reader, it's okay to write some of the story for yourself. And when you really don't understand, it's totally fine to ask. Maybe you missed something or maybe the author does need to go back and do some revision. Either way, you're helping someone by asking questions.

And that's the end of this rant. Don't know ifit made sense or not, but whatever. What do you guys think? What are someambiguous moments in your story or what are some moments that have made yourreaders have to do a little thinking? As always, leave me a comment and let meknow!