Ambiguity and Writing

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How being a bit vague can help your writing.
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JagFarlane
JagFarlane
311 Followers

Writers are often challenged with how to describe things and make a scene more real with details and yet how do you go about doing this while not breaking the spell the reader is hopefully in. One of the techniques that I like to employ is being a bit ambiguous versus giving very specific details. It doesn't work for every situation or every audience but it is fairly useful for most situations.

Why am I suggesting to be ambiguous? Well a lot of that comes from being too specific can sometimes alter the reader from being lost in the story to suddenly wondering what exactly a ten inch long by six inch in diameter mega cock would look like. When a writer gives numbers to a description, while you're giving someone an exact idea as to the object it can easily distract them. Also the problem with using measurements is that there are two systems of measurement in the world and the audience is global. Reading something in inches can easily make someone who is used to metric measurements stop reading your story in order to figure out exactly how that would look in terms of the metric system.

Instead of writing about exact details, giving descriptions like Jack's endowment was lengthy, well above average with an impressive girth to match, allows for the readers mind to shape the size the way they would wish to see it. More importantly it allows for uninterrupted story reading and keeping the reader within the realm of the story is what it's all about.

There are of course times where measurements are desired, some people are admittedly size queens and they may very well know the sizes they are necessarily looking for. This sort of situation falls under the idea of knowing your audience, if your targeted audience may be full of size queens then perhaps you'd be best putting in specific measurements in the system that they are most likely to be familiar with.

While we're on the idea of size queens, let's talk about the use of size in a story. Guys, let's be honest all too often male writers tend to focus on the size of the member and tend to write male leads that have enormous members, all the time. Now, while guys with large endowments do exist they're not as common in life as they are in stories and the reality is that they can cause pain in a woman. For the sake of the female readership it is advisable to perhaps tone it down a bit in the size department. Focus more on the actual use of his dick and a little less on him giving a porn star a run for their money.

It's not just in the area of penis measurement that we need to cut out the use of exacting sizes but also in the realm of women's bra sizes. Seriously, I don't think most of us could picture a woman with a size 36D exactly, instead it's easier to just imply she has an ample chest or other descriptors implying she has a larger than average chest helps the reader in not being shocked out of the story.

Finally a touch of realism is something that a lot of stories could use. Fantasies are nice and all, but having a little bit of realistic things happen can help a story immensely. It doesn't have to be much, just a little bit, enough to nudge along a reader so that they think that yes, this could really happen can truly sell a story. I'm not sure why writers tend to shy away from realism, the more real things that occur it seems the more the reader is willing to allow you license to be a bit crazy. If a character does something that perhaps seems a bit out of the normal, giving a decent explanation could help keep your readers from asking what the hell you just had the characters do.

I'm not saying that you can't type out something like "Marcy rode John's 12" cock while her 36DD's bounced heavily upon her chest." Instead I'm saying you should be a bit more vague, tone down a lot of these tight restrictions on what is going on and add a bit of reality. By doing that you can turn out something a bit more like this, "Marcy groaned deeply as she was stretched by John's massive cock with each stroke. Each movement caused her sweaty, heavy breasts to bounce upon her chest." A bit vague, but in a lot of ways more powerful and allowing for the reader's mind to envision what they would like. Give it a try, see how your audience responds to it.

JagFarlane
JagFarlane
311 Followers
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JuliaHandelJuliaHandelalmost 11 years ago
Useful examples

Article offers good practical advice to the aspiring novice writer.

visioneervisioneerabout 11 years ago

Good advice. In my writing I try to expose details as they might be perceived/experienced by the characters, and often sparingly at that. The reader's imagination can do the rest.

tatlockstatlocksabout 11 years ago
Insightful and useful comments.

These stories are an extension of our imagination and experience. It limits my pleasure if the story includes pointless and limiting physical descriptions. I have read stories which lose me because I am being told what to think rather than having the writer suggest what I may imagine. Great post, thanks.

AnonymousAnonymousabout 11 years ago
Agreed

Sometimes the description does not match, as in a writer describing a thin, petite woman with a 40DD chest. Many people seem not to know that the numerical part of a bra size describes the circumference of the chest underneath the breasts. The cup size is what determines the actual breast size. I fully agree with throwing numbers out for cock size.

mel_pomenemel_pomeneabout 11 years ago
Interesting

I hadn't thought of writing this way, but then I don't write stories. If I did, however, I think I would try to follow the points you made - thank you.

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