{"id":6446,"date":"2021-03-05T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/"},"modified":"2021-03-05T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:00:00","slug":"ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work"},"content":{"rendered":"

As youse know, I\u2019m reading Dodie Smith\u2019s I Capture the Castle<\/em> at the moment. (I\u2019m three-quarters of the way through and still enjoying it.)<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a critical scene in it. The seventeen-year-old narrator, Cassandra, has an elder sister, Rose, who has an inner anger or ruthlessness together with a detestation of her family\u2019s poverty. She is also, true to the book\u2019s Jane Austenian roots, very beautiful and of marriageable age.<\/p>\n

The Man With Money \u2013 the Mr Darcy role \u2013 is played by Simon, a charming American with pots of cash and an unfortunate beard. \u00a0Rose has been \u2013 crudely at first, then more cleverly \u2013 seeking to win Simon\u2019s heart. And eventually she succeeds. In the scene I want to talk about, Rose persuades Simon to shave. He asks her to marry him. She doesn\u2019t say yes, but asks him to kiss her. He does so. She then says, yes, she\u2019ll marry him.<\/p>\n

OK, so the facts are clear. But the interpretation of those facts is anything but.<\/p>\n

Simon\u2019s brother, Neil, thinks he knows. He yells at Cassandra, \u2018She\u2019s a gold-digger. And you know it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Cassandra hotly denies this \u2013 then reddens, because perhaps she thinks it too. Then, after things have calmed down a bit, Neil accepts that maybe Rose has fallen for Simon. In due course, the always-truthful Rose tells Cassandra that she really does love him. Phew!<\/p>\n

Except \u2013<\/p>\n

Those conflicting initial responses to the news never really leave us. What are Roses\u2019s real motives? How authentic is her passion? It\u2019s those questions (and Cassandra\u2019s own emotional rollercoaster) that dominate the next chunk of the book.<\/p>\n

And the book works because it leaves these questions open.<\/p>\n

Pretty much any book of quality will hang on scenes where some story situation just isn\u2019t wholly resolved. The reader is presented with all the available evidence, but that evidence can still be argued both ways.<\/p>\n

And ideally, the picture is ambiguous not simply because the data is fragmentary, but because the actual truth is shaded and complex.<\/p>\n

So, yes, Rose is a gold-digger. She wants money. She\u2019s perfectly capable of acting manipulatively to achieve her ends.<\/p>\n

But also \u2013 she\u2019s a young woman encountering her first real love and with enough self-awareness to doubt herself. (Hence getting Simon to kiss her before she answered his \u201cMarry me\u201d question.)<\/p>\n

She\u2019s both things at once: gold-digger and young woman in love.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the reason why ambiguity works so well \u2013 and why it\u2019s so important for your fiction \u2013 is that it forces readers to work<\/em><\/u>.<\/p>\n

Now that sounds like it might be a bad thing to do. Books are meant to be entertaining, right? So why make readers work? We should be helping them to sit back and relax, no?<\/p>\n

But making readers work is the whole deal. It\u2019s everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Readers are gripped by a book when they are intensely engaged by it. That\u2019s your purpose in writing it: intense engagement.<\/p>\n

Since readers \u2013 most of them \u2013 are human, they are hugely engaged by the act of trying to interpret ambiguous but consequential human behaviour. The more you can sustain the ambiguity and deepen the consequences, the more you force that intense engagement.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of a really good book that doesn\u2019t, somewhere, make use of that basic tool. I think, in fact, it\u2019s central to good writing.<\/p>\n

Macbeth? He murdered a king, but his moral awareness is still what illuminates the centre of that play.<\/p>\n

Hannibal Lecter? He\u2019s a multiple murderer and a cannibal, and is anyone\u2019s definition of an awful human being. But he was also, once, a terrific psychiatrist and he is the only one who can find a way through to the dark heart of what troubles Clarice Starling, the novel\u2019s FBI protagonist.<\/p>\n

And, strangely, ambiguity is the gift that keeps on giving. I write series fiction, which puts one character on the page for a series that has now passed the 750,000 word mark. Yet I still play the same games. On one page, Fiona is infuriating. On the next, she\u2019s funny. Then brilliant. Then hopeless. Then heroic. Then back to infuriating.<\/p>\n

How do you read her? How does your understanding encompass her?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy and it\u2019s meant to be. The result (I hope) has a kind of coherence \u2013 because chaos isn\u2019t ambiguous or rich; it\u2019s just chaotic \u2013 but I keep making the reader work.<\/p>\n

A hard-working reader is a reader who\u2019s gripped.<\/p>\n

So ambiguity and rich contradictions are your friends. Keep those things alive through the book. Rock your reader to and fro over that hump of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Rose is a gold-digger? Rose is not a gold-digger?<\/p>\n

She loves him? She loves him not?<\/p>\n

Whatever your story-question is, you want to keep both answers alive and \u2013 often \u2013 find a way to say \u201cyes\u201d to both opposing readings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fun way to read, but it\u2019s also a hell of a fun way to write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As youse know, I\u2019m reading Dodie Smith\u2019s I Capture the Castle at the moment. (I\u2019m three-quarters of the way through and still enjoying it.) And there\u2019s a critical scene in it. The seventeen-year-old narrator, Cassandra, has an elder sister, Rose, who has an inner anger or ruthlessness together with a detestation of her family\u2019s poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJericho Writers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work – Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As youse know, I\u2019m reading Dodie Smith\u2019s I Capture the Castle at the moment. (I\u2019m three-quarters of the way through and still enjoying it.) And there\u2019s a critical scene in it. The seventeen-year-old narrator, Cassandra, has an elder sister, Rose, who has an inner anger or ruthlessness together with a detestation of her family\u2019s poverty.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-05T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\"},\"headline\":\"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-05T14:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\"},\"wordCount\":855,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Harry\u2019s Friday email\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\",\"name\":\"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work – Jericho Writers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-05T14:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"description\":\"Getting you published\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Jericho Writers\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\",\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Harry Bingham\"},\"description\":\"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jericho Writers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work – Jericho Writers","og_description":"As youse know, I\u2019m reading Dodie Smith\u2019s I Capture the Castle at the moment. (I\u2019m three-quarters of the way through and still enjoying it.) And there\u2019s a critical scene in it. The seventeen-year-old narrator, Cassandra, has an elder sister, Rose, who has an inner anger or ruthlessness together with a detestation of her family\u2019s poverty.","og_url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/","og_site_name":"Jericho Writers","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","article_published_time":"2021-03-05T14:00:00+00:00","author":"Harry Bingham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_site":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harry Bingham","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/"},"author":{"name":"Harry Bingham","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a"},"headline":"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work","datePublished":"2021-03-05T14:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/"},"wordCount":855,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Harry\u2019s Friday email"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/","name":"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work – Jericho Writers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-03-05T14:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/ambiguity-and-how-to-make-the-reader-work\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ambiguity and how to make the reader work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","name":"Jericho Writers","description":"Getting you published","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization","name":"Jericho Writers","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Jericho Writers"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a","name":"Harry Bingham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","caption":"Harry Bingham"},"description":"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}