Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Vague vs Specific: When to provide motivation details for action in a story?

I'm reading Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron, where she writes the following about being vague or omitting information that the reader does not know: ...being vague is never a good idea... .....

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by iamtowrite‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question novel fiction style
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:37:43Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44336
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar iamtowrite‭ · 2019-12-08T11:37:43Z (over 4 years ago)
I'm reading [Wired for Story](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13126099-wired-for-story), by Lisa Cron, where she writes the following about being vague or omitting information that the reader does not know:

> ...being vague is never a good idea...
> 
> ...Like most things, it can start off so promisingly: “Holly ducked into the alley, glad to have avoided Sam for the millionth time.” Sounds great, right? Trouble is, unless we know at that moment in the story why Holly has been avoiding Sam, it will fall flat.
> 
> _Cron, Lisa. Wired for Story (p. 112). Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition._

Is her thesis about _vague vs. specific_ valid at all times? Based on her example above, what if the author intends to reveal why Holly is avoiding Sam later on? For instance, later on, we find that Holly has stolen Sam's collectible lunch box.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-04-03T19:04:47Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 2