In Storytelling: Never State What You Can Imply

Photo credit: 2bmolar on VisualHunt.com / CC BY

Today’s post is by regular contributor Peter Selgin, the award-winning author of Your First Page. He offers first-page critiques to show just how much useful critical commentary and helpful feedback can be extracted from a single page—the first page—of a work-in-progress. Learn more about getting a first-page critique.


First Page

The bartender slid the keys across the bar toward Judy with such force they flipped over the edge and onto a barstool. The keys that had been aimed so mindlessly at her would open the doors to what were supposed to become the band’s accommodations for the next two weeks. With a nod of the head pointing toward the rear of the building, the bartender informed us the rooms were located above the bar. Our eyes locked … close friends don’t need to talk sometimes, you just know what each of us is thinking; and we both knew we were surrounded by bad juju, and this was just the beginning. Judy and I turned and walked outside to update the other four girls, who were still waiting in the van. Suspicions already raised, we voted on who would head up our little reconnaissance mission. As leader, we naturally drafted Judy. The first in line is always the first to be sacrificed, right?

Single file, we stayed close to each other for security. All six of us followed the fractured sidewalk that looked like it had lost a bet with a jackhammer to the back of the building. The paint covering the wooden entry door leading to the second floor was blistered and cracked, scars from its colorful life. The feelings of fight or flight were beginning to set in, intensifying our natural instinct to turn around and run away from the decrepit building; but obligation forced us to open the door.

In spite of the creaking groan of the rickety wooden stairs, and against my better judgment, I cautiously continued placing each foot on the next step. My eyes felt the need to scan the tunnel-like surroundings, in case I had to make an emergency escape, when the words fell from my mouth, “I don’t like the looks of this, girls. Rooms above a bar—not a good sign.” I said this with the air of confidence of a nineteen-year old; a confidence that existed only because I was not alone.


First-Page Critique

This opening can be much improved without adding a single word. In fact, I’m going to subtract hundreds. First, though, let me explain why.

Never state what you can imply.

Years ago a dear writer friend gave me this useful bit of advice, which, whether he knew it or not, he got from French avant-garde poet, playwright, filmmaker (painter, photographer, chess player, etc.) Jean Cocteau. For a long time I clung to the injunction so fervently I printed it out in BOLD-CAPS, landscape format, and hung it on the wall over my computer next to that other sacred writers’ commandment: NO POV = NO STORY.

Since then, though I still cling tenaciously to the second injunction, I’ve loosened up a bit on the first. There are times, many in fact, when we writers need to state a thing outright, even when it has been or might be implied, in order to drive a point home or simply to draw more attention to it, or just to make sure certain implications don’t slip under the reader’s radar.

“Never state what you can imply” differs from “show, don’t tell,” that oldest of creative writing chestnuts, in that it allows for times when implication can’t always be achieved through action or “showing.” Sometimes—often in fact—we rely on the narrator’s intervention to interpret or color characters’ experiences and actions for us. There are also times when for pacing purposes an author wants to establish context more quickly than dramatization (“showing”) permits. And while it’s true that a story told purely through authorial summary (“telling”) isn’t likely to satisfy most readers, the same novel told purely through action and dialogue would in all likelihood be equally unsatisfactory. It would be like reading a movie, which is like drinking a steak.

I recall coming upon a “revised edition” of an early John Barth novel, The End of the Road, a black comedy about a character named (with intentional irony) Jacob Horner who suffers from nihilistic paralysis. I’d read the novel back in the seventies and much admired it. Curious as to what changes Barth had made, I did a page-by-page comparison with the original, only to find that the revision affected exactly one sentence. The sentence was “It hit me like a ton of bricks.” For the new edition Barth cut the line. He did so, I’m sure, because it merely stated an emotion obvious to anyone reading the scene, without adding nuance or dimension to it. On the contrary, it flattened the sentiment into a cliché. Still, the sentence did add something: a beat to allow the moment to “sink in.” If only Barth had not done it so tritely.

One of the best known examples of the power of implication is Hemingway’s famous short story “Hills Like White Elephants.” Though the story is about a young woman facing an abortion, that word makes no appearance in it. Nor are we ever told directly how either of the story’s two main characters—the woman and her male companion—feel about the prospect. Instead, all is implied through their terse, oblique, circuitous dialogue as they drink beer and absinthe and await the train that will take the woman to wherever the abortion will be performed. The first overt reference to the procedure doesn’t even appear until halfway through the very short story, where we read:

“It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,” the man said. “It’s not really an operation at all.”

The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.

“I know you wouldn’t mind it, Jig. It’s really not anything. It’s just to let the air in.”

The girl did not say anything.

Up to here, the characters have discussed (1) the shape of the hills in the distance, and (2) the taste of absinthe, nothing at all to do with the grim procedure awaiting the young woman. It can be argued that the true subject of “Hills Like White Elephants” is not abortion but avoidance. At any rate, nothing is stated; everything is implied. Our involvement in the story is heightened by the trust placed in us by the author, who dares to not describe or even to label emotions for us, who would rather risk our misunderstanding than do so. That trust, that willingness to let us supply and interpret emotions, makes for a truly interactive reading experience. We become Hemingway’s co-authors. We finish his story for him. As a result, it involves us more deeply.

Telling readers what to think or feel is the job of a propagandist. A storyteller’s main purpose, on the other hand, is to create experiences for the reader, to involve us so deeply, so convincingly, so authentically in those experiences that we feel what characters feel.

In this first page of a memoir, the author feels compelled to both show and tell us what her characters are experiencing, so we’re never allowed to draw our own conclusions. That the bartender shoves the keys “mindlessly” is implied by their flipping over the barstool. That the same bartender “informs [the narrator and her friend that] the rooms [are] located above the bar” is likewise implied by his directional nod. That the two protagonists share the same thought (that they’re “surrounded by bad juju”) is implied by their locking eyes with each other, as is the fact that their “suspicions [are] already raised.”

The tendency to state what’s implied persists through this opening, with us being told that Judy is the “natural” choice to lead her all-girl band in its reconnaissance mission to inspect their quarters, that the band members keep close together “for security,” and, as they make their way down the “fractured sidewalk that [looks] like it lost a bet with a sledgehammer” and through a paint-blistered entryway “scar[red] from its colorful life”, that “feelings of fight or flight were beginning to set in.” In case we missed the point, we’re furthermore informed that said feelings “[intensify their] natural instinct to turn around and run away.” Got it.

The same opening with implications left to the reader:

With a nod toward the building’s rear, the bartender slid the keys across the bar so hard they flipped over it onto a stool. The keys were to the band’s accommodations for the next two weeks. Judy and I locked eyes, then turned and went out to the van where the other three members of Ahead of Our Time waited.

Single-file, we followed Judy down the fractured sidewalk to the back of the building. The blood-red paint covering the door leading to stairs was blistered and cracked. As we made our way up, to the sound of wood creaking under us I said, “I don’t like the looks of this, girls.”

Your First Page SelginThe original runs 341 words; the revision 111. What, if anything, crucial is missed?

In Flannery O’Connor’s most famous story, “A Good Man in Hard to Find,” wherein a southern matriarch watches—or rather listens—as one-by-one the members of her family are executed by one of a pair of escaped serial killers in the woods close behind her, never once are we told how frightened and horrified she must feel. We aren’t told how she feels at all. The horror implicit in the scene is left entirely to our imagination. Which makes it all the more horrific.


Your turn: How would you assess this opening? (Be constructive.)

Share on:
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

15 Comments
oldest
newest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anita Rodgers

It may be that I just woke up but your take on this scene was exactly what I was thinking while reading it. Yes, the prose was impressive in that it showed the writer could wield words well. But the over writing interfered with the story. Also, reading an entire novel written this way would be exhausting.

I think the edited version plays much better. It gets to the point of the scene and enables us to move into the story.

Julie Sunne

What a difference! Enlightening and instructive. Thank you, Jane.

jon

Hemingway called his style the “Iceberg Theory” whereby “the facts float above water, the supporting structure and symbolism operate out of sight”. Also called the “theory of omission”. Many times beginning writers or writers unsure of themselves tend to overwrite, as in Mr. Selgin’s example. My experience and perspective is that most often the writer overwrites not because she thinks the reader lacks the ability to interpret the writing, but rather that the writer is unsure if her ability to communicate. Ultimately, the trick (slight of hand as it may be) is to be able to determine when precise detail is meaningful and additive and when it is gratuitous and detractive.

Sterling

Thanks Jon, excellent comments. One thing that has helped me is the idea of “one and done.” I choose the strongest object that holds the tone, and make sure the description of it carries the day. Generally, a maximum of three details. That has helped me with overwriting.

Jose Galindo

Well, the best stories are those who NEVER show the reader the obvious. It takes years to perfect and write stories like that.

Linda Carpenter

Excellent help! Thank you!

Lori

Great lesson on something not often taught. Thank-you!

Tricia

I love what you said about Barth’s omitted sentence. Very instructive. The concept of “a beat to allow the moment to sink in” gave me a light-bulb moment. It’s something I think I’ve been hazily aware of, but having a handle for it it brings it into focus so I can understand it better and use it when needed. Thank you.

Gillian Andrews

This is grown up writing. I love it and will pay better attention in the less is more theory.

Anne Green

Another way I’ve heard to explain it is … resist the urge to explain, I call it RUE and try to keep it pasted to the front of my head when writing – between the potential risk of bewildering the reader slightly and over-explaining, overwriting, I far prefer the former.

Chris Norbury

I’ve heard several writers refer to RUE as well. Leave explaining to technical writers who need to tell their readers “why” as well as “how.

Chris Norbury

Great timing and an excellent analysis. Reinforces what I’m currently doing on my w.i.p.–slashing as many unnecessary words as possible. Almost every longish paragraph I edit is usually much better if I delete a sentence or two.

Liesbet

I second you on that, Chris, while I’m doing the same in the 2nd draft of my WIP. Still, the subject of this blog is a tricky one. As a first-time (memoir) writer, I find it hard to resist from explaining too much. Especially, since the story is set on a sailboat and provides insight into a life less ordinary, which is new and different for most readers. This post and the comments are all great advice. In the next draft, I attempt to cut and imply more.

Kevin

I agree with the principles laid out in this article, and I agree that the original version of this memoir could use some trimming; however, I feel that the 111 word revision takes things a bit too far and that some important tone and atmosphere is lost by making it quite this terse. A few examples:

“[T]he bartender slid the keys across the bar so hard they flipped over it onto a stool.”

Without additional context this reads more like the bartender is angry or annoyed than mindless. The implication I would take is that he actively doesn’t want them there, not that he simply doesn’t particularly care or think much of them either way.

“Judy and I locked eyes, then turned and went out to the van…”

If I hadn’t read the original I’d have completely missed the implied communication going on here. It reads too fast. It needs a beat to sink in and be analyzed. Without that, I take it purely on face value. They looked at each other, then walked out.

From the original:

“My eyes felt the need to scan the tunnel-like surroundings…”

I don’t actually like this sentence at all. Talking about what her eyes felt the need to do is silly and ‘tunnel-like’ isn’t a particularly elegant description. However, it did arrest my attention enough to picture the surroundings and get a sense of the enclosed staircase. It could be better written but omitting it completely without putting something in its place sacrifices quite a bit of atmosphere in my opinion.

From the original:

“I said this with the air of confidence of a nineteen-year old; a confidence that existed only because I was not alone.”

This was my favorite sentence in the entire piece, and it felt like by far the most important takeaway of the excerpt. I don’t know what the rest of the memoir is like, but if it focuses on their relationship as bandmates and on what the author’s life was like as a young naive woman with a taste for adventure then this amounts to a sort of thesis statement. This seems like the one sentence that should in no way be cut from the opening section. It tells me, and yes tells me not implies, what the memoir is about and why I should bother reading on.