Hey everyone! Here I am back again with another post for another day! I am super excited to finally get the chance to write this post. This is one that I’ve been really looking forward to writing in this series. I came up with this series mostly because of this post. I can’t wait to write it and hear from everyone on what they think! So without further ado…
Small Skills: Hint, Don’t Explain
Like I said earlier. I am super duper excited for this post. I’ve spent forever thinking about this topic. It’s similar to Show, Don’t Tell and Reveal, Don’t Describe. Whereas these two skills were for scene, setting, character and plot; Hint, Don’t Explain is more for world building.
Now I’m just going to say this now. I have never, not once, heard this skill brought up in any chat forum I have ever read, it was not ever mentioned in any conference but it is something and I, and a few of my writer friends, have noticed. When not done write the mistakes this writing skill can create drive me insane. If I find it in the beginning of a book I have a hard time reading the rest. And my biggest pet peeve about this skill is that I still struggle to do it properly. It is a very hard skill to really master. Especially when a writer is extremely enthusiastic about what they are writing.
Often times when I read a YA novel we start in chapter one with basic exposition and hook where we get to meet the main characters and we are introduced to the story and the conflict. And then you start chapter two and the author mentions some insignificant fact about something in the world and then suddenly we have 4 pages of world building dump where the author just tells you everything there is to know about the world. Suddenly we are drowning in the world building and we haven’t even reached chapter three. Theses authors explained. They did not hint.
When a writer explains instead of hinting the reader can often time get too caught up in the world building and the author can sometimes give information to the reader that isn’t necessary for them to know at the time. As a writer I can understand how hard it is to not dump all the cool information about your world on the readers. If you’re like me you spend months just world building but if you simply dump all that info on your reader every other chapter then they might know stuff that they think will be important and then it isn’t and forget the stuff that eventually becomes important.
I’ve noticed, through years of reading all sorts of books that there are several different methods to avoiding explaining plot. Although even these methods, if used incorrectly or overused, can turn into explaining.
The first of these skills I like to call slow release of information. The best example of this that I can think of off the top of my head is the Hunger Games. SPOILER ALERT!
In the very first book of the hunger games we learn the basics of the story. We learn about the destruction of District 13, we learn about the rules of the Hunger Games but we don’t know exactly what happens. As Katniss and Peeta go to the capital as tributes we as the readers are slowly introduced the preparations for the games, all the testing and shows that we didn’t know about before because it was revealed to us as the characters went through it. But it doesn’t stop in book one. In book two we learn about victory tours. We learn more about the Peacekeepers. We learn about the quarter quell. Then we learn that District 13 is still around. We learn a bit more of what the other victors went through after they won their games. All of these things are hinted at and revealed as the story goes along.
Sometimes this skill is a little difficult to achieve. Sometimes writers make the mistake of not fully developing their concept. They don’t actually do all the world building. They write book one and it’s great. When they write book two they realize they have an inconsistency and they make up a new fact for the world to help them continue the plot. This is not hinting and then world building for you reader. This is making it up. Readers are very good and picking out world building versus making it up. At least go rewrite parts of the first book so it’s not so obvious that you made up that world building bit in the second book.
Method number two is what I like to call the ignorance method. This method only works if you have a really dense character, a really undereducated character, or a character that never payed attention when they were taught the world building things your reader doesn’t know. In the ignorance method you simply have a character that doesn’t know anything and then they constantly need the people around them to explain things to them and therefore the readers get stuff explained to them. The way this is often done is through what I call Natural Conversation Revealing. Your character could be simply having a conversation with someone else about something that is happening and have them ask a natural question. A question that your reader is probably thinking at that point. That’s when one of the other characters explains it to them. Perfect.
A great example of this is Garion from the Belgariad series by David Eddings. Garion is raised on a farm in the middle of one of the most peaceful and rich countries in the whole world. He doesn’t know much about the outside world and the little he does know is veiled in childlike misunderstanding. He is kind of forced to go on a journey with the other characters and travel the whole world. As he goes he is constantly learning about the new places and new things. This gives the readers a chance to understand what is happening and what the world is like. Especially in cases like that book were there are so many unique countries with so many different unique cultures.
Sometimes though writers can take this too far. You’re character needs to be ignorant and a little dense but they can not be dumb. Sometimes the things the writer reveals about the world come through in the characters thoughts as concepts the other characters pointed out to them click to help them understand a new concept. This is what stops your character from just being stupid. Remember when I said your characters need to be likable? Yeah. It’s hard to like them if they’re too dumb.
The third method goes along with the ignorant character method a bit. Sometimes your characters need a mentor. This method really only works if you are also using both of the earlier two. If you are already revealing world building through plot and through a semi ignorant character is might be time to introduce a mentor. Mentors are the specific character who can always somehow pull off one or two world building dumps per book and disguise it as informing a character. And in this case you usually reveal more in depth world building using a semi-educated character. Instead of simple concepts to an ignorant character you build upon those things that the reader already knows and introduce more in-depth concepts through the mentor character. A good example of this is Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. He explains things to the characters and to the readers excepting both to already have a minimal understanding of the world. And they should because the reader and the character should already be semi-educated.
The last method is something I call small dump through description. The only place I have ever really seen this work is in High Fantasy novels. In High Fantasy novels the authors often times fill the pages with descriptions. It almost feels like 75% descriptions and only 25% dialogue. If even that much dialogue. Because High Fantasy novels use so much description they are much easier able to throw in world building. For example, say my High Fantasy novel has some sort of sport that is important in book two. Maybe in book one I have a character describe the field of play during a survey of the general setting of a certain scene. Then maybe later there is a small conversation about an injury caused during this game by someone breaking a specific rule. Mention the rule. Have little things like that pop up until the reader has a general idea of what the game is and what it entails. Suddenly when book two happens we don’t need to explain the whole concept of the game, just a few things the characters forgot.
So just to recap. The three methods of Hint, Don’t Explain are; the slow release of information, the ignorant character, the mentor character, and the small dump through description. All of these methods are effective to help hint at world building. However, all four of these methods, if used incorrectly can still turn into explaining. Writers still need to be careful of how much information they are giving their readers. Be Careful! And like I said at the beginning. This is a really hard skill. I still struggle with this skill at one time or another. But we can all get better together!
I hope that you all enjoyed that post and you are ready for next weeks post already. Next weeks post will be the last post in the Small Skills series and I will be moving onto the next series which I will announce at the end of next weeks post. In the meantime,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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