The art of withholding information

Veteran fiction writers will say that one of the biggest mistakes newbie writers make is the "information dump." It's when you dump huge chunks of a character's backstory in the first few pages because -- newbies believe -- the information provides important insights into a character's motivation.

I was guilty of it in my first (unfinished) manuscript. I didn't realize HOW guilty of it I was until I got a critique from a published author. She crossed out six pages of my first chapter with a red pen and wrote in the margins, "Backstory. Save it for later."

The critique left me sputtering. But...but...but... How can my readers possibly care about the character if they don't know X,Y, and Z about her? How can they possibly understand why she does what she does if they don't know those things? What if they think badly of her for doing what she does if they don't know THIS?! (There are many ways to make readers care about your characters without a shred of backstory, but that's a post for another day.)

I was reminded of that lesson today after watching, "Eastern Promises," starring Oscar nominee Viggo Mortenson. Viggo plays a dark character -- a member of a very violent Russian mob that runs a sex slave operation. I won't offer too many details because I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't seen the movie yet. But let me say this: You discover something about his character in the last 15 minutes of the movie that puts an entirely new twist on his actions, his motivation and his decisions. It was the kind of revelation that made me say right out loud, "Oh, you're kidding me, right? How could I have NOT seen that coming?"

I admire the movie-makers on this one for fighting the temptation to reveal this crucial tidbit much earlier in the movie. If I had known this particular thing earlier, the movie would have lost its darkness and its suspense. And -- guess what? Even without knowing this piece of information, I still developed enough of a connection with Viggo's character to care what happened to him.

It's a good lesson for fiction writers. Readers want to know the answers to all their questions. But if you offer those answers too early, you take away the reader's incentive for reading the rest of the book. You steal them of their own, "Oh, you're kidding me, right?"

I once came across a quote (supposedly) by Mark Twain. He said, "Storytelling is not the art of revealing information. It's the art of withholding information." Exactly.

WRITING TIP
When you're developing a new character or outlining a new book, play a game with yourself. Pick a crucial bit of backstory and plant the "revelation scene" in several different chapters. Keep moving it farther and farther into the story. Each time you move it, ask yourself how that delayed revelation changes the story. Does it add suspense? Does it allow you to create greater tension?