Don't Put Your Readers into A Coma

Any kind of writing demands clarity. That's something we tend to forget when we move from something stodgy, like the argumentative synthesis, to something more fun, like our personal essay.

Nevertheless, the personal essay calls for the same kind of clarity that the argumentative synthesis calls for.

We know the story we want to tell well. And when we know a story well, we sometimes take shortcuts in telling it. Sometimes those shortcuts work, when we're talking to an audience that knows us, and can generally fill in the unintentional blanks we leave in the tales we tell.

Sometimes, however, we forget who we're talking to. And the shortcuts we take make no sense to our audience, because they don't know enough about us to fill in the blanks.

For example, I could tell the following story:

Down the street about half a block, the traffic light was red.

“We’re going through,” Joe said.

“You’ll have to slow down,” I told him.

“A little bit. They’ll just have to get out of the way.”

Joe swung the vehicle wide, around the lineup of left-turning traffic. A lady driving a mini-van in cross traffic saw him coming and gunned it. Joe stomped on the brakes, but when she passed, he immediately plowed out into traffic, most of which saw him coming and stopped or quickly got out of the way.

I could feel my heart pounding against the seatbelt.

“Thirteen more stoplights to go,” Joe said, “and we’re there.”

It’s difficult to contrive a story to illustrate the problem of clarity. It’s probably obvious what details I left out?

Or is it?

Are Joe and I driving a police car, a fire engine? Are our lights blazing, and are we legally allowed to run a red light, even cautiously?

Or are Joe and I criminals, or thrill-seekers, who just don’t want to stop at those stoplights?

Given the context I’ve offered, it could go either way.

So as you tell your stories, be aware of what details you need to include to help your readers understand the situation. The blanks you leave in your writing may not be as obvious as this – most are much more subtle than this scenario allows.

Don’t leave your readers wondering if you’re a saint or a devil.