If you read through various blogs about writing, there is a common theme: Don't treat your readers like they're idiots. This is 100% true, because your readers will have experiences and knowledge that they bring with them, interpreting your stories with that eye. But are you taking full advantage of that preexisting knowledge?
The acclaimed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury wrote many novels and short stories that were printed in the 1950s and 1960s. His readers had survived World War II, bringing with them the knowledge and experiences they had from during the war, including the colloquial terms. Readers of today can still enjoy his stories, but there will be elements we will miss because the subtext is meaningless without the World War II experience.
Today's readers of 2001: A Space Odyssey laugh at how far off-base the predictions regarding space travel and artificial intelligence were. But it was written in 1968, one year before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. Had the space program continued at the rate it was back in the late 1960s, not stopping at the moon, then we would likely already have a colony on Mars today, changing some of the meaning of that book and movie.
While we are hopefully crafting our stories in such a way that they are timeless, there will always be a partial reliance on preexisting knowledge to understand some subtext. It's time to look at how much hidden subtext is buried within your own writing based on the experiences and preexisting knowledge of your current readers.
How preexisting knowledge impacts on storytelling
There is a Twitter writing game where you write a 6-word story based on a picture prompt. I take part in this from time to time, experimenting with punctuation, to see how I can convey a simple idea in just 6 words.
There was one image that was of a group of women dressed as witches on paddle boards. Of course, I knew right away what the perfect 6-word story would be.
Operation: Kill Dorothy. Plans need rethinking!
Operation: Kill Dorothy. Plans need rethinking!#sixwordstory #amwriting #WritingCommunity https://t.co/D9Gwuh5Gal
— Judy L Mohr (@JudyLMohr) October 5, 2020
The only reason that line works is because of preexisting knowledge of the reader. If you have never seen the movie The Wizard of Oz, or have never read the original book by L. Frank Baum, then you would stare at that line with a big massive "Huh?" It wouldn't be funny.
But that's what I'm talking about. As writers, we assume that our readers have some preexisting knowledge or experience from which they can draw on to understand the subtext.
Understand your audience
Part of understanding your readership is understanding what preexisting knowledge and experiences they have that they bring to your writing. And that experience will be vast.
Some knowledge and experience is a generational thing.
Those who are currently in their late 60s and early 70s, my parent's generation, have the knowledge and experience of what it was like living through the Vietnam War. They had the draft where young men were forced to fight—or flee, forever being branded as criminals. You had the free-love hippie era, and you had some of the most amazing music in history, including the historic concert that took place at Woodstock.
I remember watching the movie Hair with my mother (yes, the musical), and my mother was in tears. While I loved the movie (and I adore the musical), it didn't connect with me on the same level that it did with my mother, but that's because she lived through it.
My generation will remember when security at airports drastically changed. While our children have been told about the events of 9/11, they will struggle to fully comprehend the impact that one moment of terrorism had on the world.
My children's generation have never known a day without cellphone coverage or social media. Dial-up internet is archaic technology compared to what they know. And because of the events that happened surrounding the pandemic and 2020, online learning is now common practice.
These experiences change the way we see the world. And when it comes to reading a book, these experiences will color the way we interpret the words.
Taking advantage of preexisting knowledge
Words and language change all the time. Even if you don't know the origins of those words, you likely still know what the words mean.
My generation and the generations before me will remember the television series called MacGyver. In every episode, Richard Dean Anderson's character would solve some deadly situation with nothing more than duct tape and a pocket knife. The show generated innovative scientists and engineers, and the word MacGyverism is now part of our language, meaning something has been jury-rigged together.
That's another phrase that has commonplace meaning, but we have lost the origins of the phrase. The term jury rigging comes from the days when we used to sail the seas by boat.
If I was to say something like Zoom call or Facetime, or Skype call, most people will know exactly what I'm referring to. As a writer, it wouldn't be necessary for me to waste precious word counts to explain how these are all the same thing: a video-based telephone call.
And did Alexander Graham Bell know we would just call it a phone?
All of this is assuming a certain level of preexisting knowledge and taking advantage of that knowledge within our writing.
Slipping in the pandemic
Writers everywhere are struggling with the idea of whether we should or shouldn't be including the pandemic in our stories. While I believe it is too soon to explicitly include COVID, there will be aspects of the pandemic experience that can leak into our words.
We can write about trying to find a new normal. Or we can talk about the frustrations of trying to learn through online settings. Or we can explore the isolation that has resulted from the various lockdowns around the world—either in a sociological or political sense. There are many aspects associated with our common experience that we can incorporate into our stories, taking full advantage of the preexisting knowledge.
It's in the little details that we connect on a deeper level, with readers finding hidden meanings in the subtext.
Take some time to think about the preexisting knowledge that your readers might have and use it to your advantage.