Writing Tidbits #5

Withholding Information

If the point-of-view character knows something, then you must tell the reader that information when the character is thinking about it. Withholding "obvious" information only irritates the reader.

For example, I read a book were a point-of-view character is upset by "the green object"...and she knows what it is. Later, she actually handles it, yet she still thinks of it as "the green object." Near the end, we finally find out it is a green bikini bottom. The mystery would only have increased, not decreased, by giving this information from the start. I would even say that the reader should have known why the bikini bottom troubled her (since she would know). If this spoiled the tension of the story, then she shouldn't have been used as a point-of-view character.

The artificial withholding of information only weakens a tale. If you feel the need to do it, then something foundational isn't working in the story and the artificial withholding of information won't fix it.