Be Clear, Not Obtuse

One of the best ways that writers can be hospitable to their readers is by being clear. People don’t like feeling confused, and they feel neglected if the author confuses them.

I’ll give you an example. There’s a modern filmmaker/director who my family has loved to follow over the years. Many of his movies are beautifully shot and well-executed. Some of them have mysteries or cleverness embedded that you might be surprised by along the way.

Now that he has a good reputation, this same director recently made his “cleverest” movie. This movie was confusing to every single person who watched it. Nobody I know who has watched this film understood it the first time through. It is utterly baffling. In the end, there’s a wink in the story, and immediately you are faced with the cue to watch it again, “now that you know what you know.”

Sometimes, this technique works. There are other movies where I’ve been excited at the big reveal and wanted to watch the movie over again.

Unfortunately, this time, I was mentally exhausted by the end of the movie, and I had no desire to ever experience it again. I felt like I’d been abandoned by the filmmaker — that I was in the audience, and he was on the stage saying, “Don’t you think I’m clever?! Look what I can do!” It was not hospitable to the audience (in my humble opinion).

One reviewer described this film as feeling like “a very loud math problem.”

This doesn’t mean that authors have to be gentle with their readers from a good vs evil perspective. Things can look quite dark, and the reader will still welcome clarity in your storytelling. At the end of The Two Towers, things look quite grim for Middle-earth. Frodo might be dead. The ring is hung up in orc territory. Sam is despairing. The fellowship is broken and lost to one another.

But even in that dark moment, Tolkien does not abandon the reader. He is telling the story, and you know he’s leading you somewhere. In the dark tower of Minas Morgul, from a story perspective, things are as clear as day. You don’t know where Tolkien is taking you, but you know he’s got you by the hand and is leading you somewhere.

Being clear takes skill and patience, but it is one of the best ways to serve the reader.