Why Withhold Information?

I wrote the “vomit draft” of Daughters of Darkwana (the first in my fifteen-book novel series) in a few months. I originally titled it Daughters of Elsewhere. I made a lot of changes while I labored to edit it and the rest of its family.

I decided early on to trim away any information that the reader didn’t need to know. Other fantasy novels, such as those in the Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones series took an opposite approach in the name of world building.

I appreciate world building, but I wanted to write something different: fantasy that moved as greased lightning.

A professor of mine in college made another suggestion. He pointed out that in Daughters, I explained early on the histories of my protagonist, Wally Cook and my antagonist, Special Agent Baxter of the FBI.

My professor questioned why I went that route. My readers did need that information for the story to make sense, but did the readers need that information right away?

The way I originally wrote it, the first few chapters of Daughters offered massive information dumps. It didn’t read like a news report, but close.

“Why not,” my professor dared me, “withhold the information? Why not keep your readers guessing until you simply must reveal your characters' backgrounds?”

I tried his advice, and I liked the results. I reformatted my entire novel around it. Daughter of Darkwana now flings its readers into the plot within a handful of pages.

Downsides exist to this strategy.

My readers must trust that my story will make sense, that the holes will fill themselves to satisfaction, if they play along until the story carries them there.

My readers must trust that Wally and Baxter possess proper motives behind their goals and behaviors, that my characters serve as products of their histories and not just names that do whatever I command from my keyboard.

I added clues along the way to keep my readers interested (one hopes).

Wally, in the first chapter of Daughters, holds an old photograph of a young girl. I offer no explanation—yet—as to her identify.

In chapter two, Baxter announces to Wally (and thus my readers), that he knows that Wally spent years in search of the girl in the photo.

Baxter, a few chapters later, writes repeatedly “I am very, very sorry for November 11^th 1962,” but the readers do not yet know why.

While Wally travels under the guard of his new kitsune allies (more on the kitsunes in a future post), and Baxter sends supernatural assassins to defeat the kitsunes and capture Wally, I fed my readers small clues about the girl in the photo and the purpose behind Baxter’s written apology.

I reveal, by the end of the novel's second act, the answers to those mysteries, and thus I explain my characters' motives.

I can’t claim that this didn’t feel risky. Television shows such as Lost and movies such as those made by director M. Night Shyamalan soured people against withheld information and plot twists.

Blurbs prove another problem. How does one promote a book when one doesn’t wish to “spill the beans” about its surprises?

Daughters already enjoyed its first two years on Kindle, so I can now spill the beans a little bit.

I will, next week, discuss some of the stories that did (and did not) influence the entire series, Diaries of Darkwana.

Thanks for reading!

You can catch my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana, on Kindle.

I publish my blogs as follows:

Short stories on Mondays and Thursdays at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at entertainment industries via feminist and queer theory, as well as other political filters on Tuesdays at Entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com

An inside look at my novel series, its creation, and the e-publishing process on Wednesdays at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips to improve your fiction writing Fridays at FictionFormula.blogspot.com