Don’t Assume Your Reader Isn’t Literally Taking You Literally

Last week, I was reading a book to my 4.5 year old about a kid who writes a letter and mails it to his grandma. After finishing the book, my son became obsessed by and excited with the idea of writing his Grammy a letter and mailing it to her. He talked about it all day, planning how he’d write the letter, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it, and take it to the post office. After much waiting and anticipation, after dinner, we finally sat down to write the letter. I held the pen, poised above the paper, ready for his dictation of said letter. He looked at me, wide eyed and excited and said, “W.”

Me: ?

Him: “That’s the letter I want to send her. W.”

Me, trying not to laugh, “No, not a letter of the alphabet, a letter is like a note, etc.”

So after I finally transcribed the “note” and sealed it up and tucked son into bed, I started thinking about how, as writers, we often take for granted that our readers will understand us and not take things literally.

Obviously, I’m not suggesting to spell everything out, as most of our readers will be less literal than a four year old (hopefully, anyway). It’s a fine line as over-explaining in fiction is one of the most annoying things, even if for the sake of clarity.

But sometimes, as writers, we use slang or colloquialisms that, if taken literally, may say something different than we mean. The key is choosing when the literal meaning matters, when it’s a matter of voice and will work itself out for the reader, and when you should change the words to appeal to more readers/keep from driving readers in the completely wrong direction. I have one beta reader who has found a few instances in my novels and it always makes me laugh when I’ve written something that’s obvious to me but unknown to someone else. It really is an eye opener to what readers may think.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, I think it can happen in a few different ways.

One is when it’s a matter of voice. In that case, I’d probably always choose to leave it alone. Example: In one of my novels, my MC speaks in a lot of slang. I think his voice takes some getting used to, but it’s invariably him and changing his voice/language/slang or explaining what any of it means would not only slow the story down, but lessen him in many ways too. A few examples of slang used, that one of my betas flagged with a “huh?” on first read:

“I've got mad mouths to feed.” In this case, mad means many, but my reader was all, “Huh, are they angry mouths? WTF does this mean, exactly?”

Or when the mc meets the love interest. He can’t get enough of her. At one point he refers to her:

“Crazy beautiful eyes.” In this case, crazy means good - kinda like bad meant good in the 80s - but my reader was all, “WTF, why is he hitting on some girl who looks insane/crazy?”

"The music is sick in here." Sick means awesome, good. Not ill.

In my opinion, these kinds of discrepancies are fine. Even though it may raise a few brows or confusion, because it’s not really misleading and not too important, I left them in. My feeling is, it’s just his voice and by a few chapters in, the reader will get him and how he speaks. They'll be part of his world.

Another time, however, the terminology may have been a bit too misleading. The following scene takes place after a poker game turns violent and abruptly ends. The line read:

“Cards still spread face down, the various seats pushed out by the guys that left before the real action started, the kitty still piled in the middle of the table.

By kitty, I was referring to the pot, the pile of money, the, well, the kitty. But one of my readers commented with smiles and laughter, having never heard the term before. I had to laugh at the vision of the poker game gone wrong and a big old fat cat sitting on the table. My assumption that the term was known was something I definitely should not have taken for granted. In these types of cases, I would most likely choose to change it. Something misleading like that could probably pull the reader too far out of the scene.

I’m sure there are millions of other situations where misinterpretations happen. What do you think? Do you always think about your slang and terminology and assume the reader will know what you know? Do you simplify for their sake? I think, going forward, I’ll be a bit more conscious of my assumptions. Unless, of course, it’s for the sake of voice. My usual rule will always apply for that – voice trumps all.

What do you guys think?