What Your Readers Need to Know (and Not Know) - Part 1

FICTION PHARMACY
DX = INFORMATION OVERLOAD

What Your Readers Need to Know (and Not Know) - Part 1

As an author, you need to know everything about your main characters, and quite a bit about your minor characters. But keep this in mind: the readers DON'T need to know everything!

As the author, you need to thoroughly research your settings and any technical information for the story. But keep this in mind (once again): the reader's DON'T need to know everything!

What DO the Readers Need to Know?

Readers only Need to Know: 

1) what is absolutely essential to the story

2) only those things that will move the story forward 

3) things that will leave the readers confused if they don't know it

Things Readers Do Not Need to Know (among other things--you'll get the drift)

1) Any character's entire backstory (even the main character's)

2) How the heroine and hero first met years ago in high school (unless it's very relevant and very short)

3) Details about all of the character's doctor visits before the main diagnosis is given. They can be referred to, but a full scene is not needed.

4) Details about all the job interviews the character sat through before getting the current position. Again, they can be referred to--if that information is pertinent to the story--but details and/or full scenes are not needed.

5) All of the character's previous relationships that brought her to the point where she realizes she's finally met Mr. Right

6) All about the character's disastrous relationship with his alcoholic father (or overbearing mother, or even the sister he adores)

7) A character's trips to and from anywhere to anyplace (home to work, travel to a vacation spot, a short hop into the grocery store on the way to an important event--you get the idea: anything that's ho-hum, everyday, going-through the motions travel that does nothing to move the story forward).

8) Ho-hum greetings that are the standard, "Hi, how are you doing," kind of thing

9) Technical details about a project the characters are working on. Don't gloss over the important facts, but only go as deep as you need to go.

10) Finely detailed descriptions of every setting. Give just enough for the readers to paint the pictures in their head, then let them fill in the rest (they do a good job of it; really, they do!)

The list could go on and on, but I think you get the general idea.

What it all comes down to is this: 

Do not include anything that doesn't move the story forward. 

If you do, especially if you do it often, you risk losing the readers attention or them putting the book down and never picking it up again. 

Now it's your turn. Read through your current WIP (work-in-progress) until you get to a scene that tells the readers something that they don't absolutely, positively NEED to know in order to follow the story. (Yes, you have some of those. Everyone does. Especially if your WIP has more than 90,000 words.) Mark the section with either a different color of the words or highlighting so you can come back to them after you've read the suggestions in Part 2. Keep reading until you find and mark all of them (you know it won't just be one, right?).

If you find this to be a difficult task, you're right. But don't despair! 

Read on to Part 2 for some specific ideas to help you through this process.