Writing advice: Subtly (is like a cannibalistic metaphor)

Subtly

Let’s talk about subtly.

As an artist, you can view your job as three different things: 1) It’s your job to create something off an idea, and let the world interpret it, 2) It’s your job to form an idea and present that idea in a compelling enough way to bring joy to others/yourself, 3) It’s your job to create something which will have a clear cut message, which the piece of art might present from multiple perspectives.

One could argue that “making something which people will throw money at” is the fourth point of view, but I don’t call those people artists. 

I call them manufacturers. 

As a writer, your medium tends to leave less up to interpretation. It does, however, give an ample opportunity to present issues from different perspectives and reveal the moral gray area in which most acts in this world fall. This is why it is important to incorporate subtly into your work.

This is for a number of reasons really, and if you make it through the reasons I promise to stop listing stuff. The first reason is because if you are too direct, people will tend to call you preachy That said, if you are going to say “to hell with subtly!” you have to do it in the most spectacularly impressive manner that people can’t really argue with it (see 1984 as an example of a book which drives it’s point straight through the earth, and has no two ways about it).

That kind of thing, however, doesn’t work every time. Kurt Vonnegut said “to hell with mystery, just tell your readers what’s going on” and it worked pretty well for him. But subtly, is like a lagoon. You can drain the lagoon, but the ground will still be wet.

For my whole life, I thought the point of The Wizard of Oz, was that you don’t need God to be the person you want to be and do the things you want. Then someone offered a dissenting view, and I was surprised by the logic of it. They said, what if the Wizard being a humbug represents politicians? Or corporations promising to work miracles for towns and states?

The emerald city turns out to not actually be green in the book, which could mean that money is an illusion. All of a sudden, this unshakable view of the book had been...shaken. 

Obviously, the lesson here is that you can rely on yourself and that there is no place like home, but just who or what The Wizard represents is up to pure speculation. Which means even though it is a children’s book, and it shoves its message in your face enough times to make you vomit, it still has an element which allows people to come to their own conclusion.

This is called subtly. It allows a book which might not seem to have a greater meaning, have one, and adds depth to a situation which might otherwise be a tad thin.

The second reason you need subtly is called “Overdescription.” If I write “Joe stubbed his toe and howled” it reads better than “Joe stubbed his toe and howled in pain.” Because everyone and their mother’s uncle has stubbed their toe. They know what it feels like. If they are reading your story, then they understand the concept of pain, even if they aren't a neurologist. 

And even if the person has never stubbed their toe, they understand the fundamentals of pain. In Stephen King’s aptly named “On Writing” (the subtly just pours forth on that one), he notes that new writers use descriptors with “ly” at the end of them when they are unneeded.

If I say “Aunt Sally screeched horribly” it doesn’t read as well as just writing “Aunt Sally screeched.” Why? Because this is WRITING we are talking about (writing books at least, in playwriting and screenwriting you’re supposed to leave how horrible that screech is up to the director). Your job is to lay down the story, and it is the reader’s job to come to their own conclusions as to whether Aunt Sally’s screeching is insane, horrible, or shrill. We know that screeches sound like this, we don’t need this level of clarification.

Now if the sentence or sound could be interpreted in ways which might detract from the way that you want the character to be viewed, then you can step in and add a bit of specification.

Finally, to our third and final reason. Personalization. It’s fine if you have a big message that you want to tell, I get that feeling all the time. BUT, if you want to reach a larger audience (and not be called “preachy” by critics) than you should leave some mystery to what is the big baddy, and what the side characters might be experiencing. Add extra motivation, and more people will relate.

And while it’s great if you want to make some grand, condemning point about society, the human race, or just life in general, if you are not so blatant, you have a chance to bring that idea to a larger audience.

That said, you sure as hell better have passion behind what you write, or it will be uninteresting drivel. There is a sweet spot I think, in which you can pour your heart out, but still have an element up to interpretation. It’s fine if people view a certain character or situation differently, as long as you can convey your point. Just as it's fine if people didn’t like your message because of their view. That’s what writing is about, sending out a piece of yourself in the form of words and letting the reader decide whether the piece was worth digesting.

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