Realistic Writing: The Art of Implying and Suggesting
SUMMARY
Both fiction and nonfiction works are illusionary and do not represent the complete reality of the subject matter. However, this does not make them any less of a mirror of truth or a proper examination of a subject. Writing should reflect the seen story world, but less information is more accurate and realistic. Authentic writing does not reveal everything about a character or a situation but instead reveals what is obvious and hints at something lurking underneath. We do not know ourselves or the people we live with, and therefore, as writers, we only need to imply and suggest but never attempt to know everything about a character. This makes for realistic writing.
EXPANDED DISCUSSION
Books and films project an illusionary world. I would go so far as to say the same is true whether the project is fiction or nonfiction, for, even in nonfiction, the author chooses what is revealed or shown, thus skewing the total reality of the very thing the work is meant to represent. But does this make the work any less a mirror of reality? I think not. As our realities are not necessarily actual but our perception, the work itself is its reality, just as ours belongs to us. A work – fiction or nonfiction – is the author's worldview, and the world the author sees is as accurate as anything human can be.
Writing should be as realistic as it can be, literally a mirror (though sometimes distorted) reflecting the seen story world. However, some degrees of this world produce genuine realities, and in writing, there is a converse equation that more is less, and less is more. More information is less a mirror, less information is more a mirror, for this is the reality of life and thus the existence of realistic written portrayal of characters and situations.
If you think about it, stepping away from our self-images, we know very little about the people around us or even the world surrounding us. We understand what we see and interpret but know little about what lies below the surface. We have neighbors with all sorts of problems that we don’t know about, neighbors whom we may talk with every day. We have children that we live with, and I would dare say they have areas of their lives that are hidden from us. I could go on, but you get the point. Accurate writing, then, is not revealing all there is to know about a character or a situation, but instead reveals what is obvious and then hints that something is lurking underneath that we may determine through the writer sharing with the reader or will be inferred but never confirmed by what the writer does not communicate with the reader. The latter is writing realistically. To know a character entirely is, in many ways, to create a caricature. To think you know a character but realize that there is much beneath the surface is to create an accurate portrayal of reality, a true story, a story told in truth. Emphatically, I will state that we do not know ourselves and do not honestly know the people we live with. How unrealistic is the writing if we purport to know these characters when they probably do not know themselves? Imply, suggest, but as a writer, you may never know when it comes to characters, for the character himself does not know either. This makes for realistic writing.
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