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Getting too close to your subject

collide-o-scopecollide-o-scope
edited June 2009 in - Writing Tales
I fell victim to this once. I had been researching and researching, mainly video footage of football games. When it came to writing about it, I made the mistake of thinking that your average Joe on the street would remember the games as well as I did, but of course I was wrong. I had just been watching them over and over so they were very clear in my mind, but not in the collective memory of my readers.

Have any of you done this?

Comments

  • Island GirlIsland Girl
    Obviously not with football but often when I'm writing a short story, I read through it so often that I know everything inside out and back to front. Then when it comes to the editing stage, I chop out superfluous words or phrases only to be told that it doesn't neccessarily make sense to the reader who is not aware of the full story. I agree C-O-S You really do have to be careful when you 'know' something so thoroughly. :)
  • CarolCarol
    Good point CoS.
    You have to treat the reader as if they do not no much at all- some will, some won't.
  • Baggy BooksBaggy Books
    Although readers enjoy knowing they're familiar with a subject, they also want to either learn something new or be prompted to remember a detail too.

    We all know how nice it is to think 'I already knew that', but that won't satisfy throughout a complete book.
  • dorothyddorothyd
    My problem is that my authors lived their lives and think everyone knows the people they knew. I had this with the Duke's book, only to find my editor coming back to ask who is this and who is that and why were they important? and we had to put a few words in to explain who they were. The duke used titles freely, "Stillington came" and he asked, who was Stillington? Was it Bishop Stillington? and so on. The balance of information to story is very delicate. My task is to get my authors to give me their lives and then add enough information - as I am doing with Guy Fawkes - to fill it out. As in, he went to work at Cowdray Hall in Sussex. So, how far was Cowdray Hall from Midhurst where the coach dropped you off? I don't know, a bit of a walk.
    OK, he's a big man with a long stride,' how long did it take you to walk it?' 'An hour, maybe two.' Grrrrr.... and he just smiles. (I have yet to make Guy laugh).
    Back to the Internet, call up the AA site, go for a route, put in Midhurst and Cowdray Golf Club (the nearest address) find it out it is 1.5 or so miles ... then write that in, somehow, so the reader has some idea of the walk he had to do.
    Yes, you can get too close and my authors, writing their lives, are way too close and it is my task to ensure the reader knows what is going on. I learned from writing the duke's book and have watched for that ever since.
  • ClaudiaClaudia
    It's all too easy to misjudge/forget how much the reader needs to know. I usually run stuff by my OH as he's good at catching those sort of glitches.
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