How to give your readers just enough information

It's been theorized that one reason (of many) that readers dislike the screen adaptations of their favorite books is that they enjoy filling in the blanks with their own mind's eye.

So even if you doubt your novel will ever become a movie or TV show, there's a lesson for you in that theory: that readers neither want nor need to be spoon-fed.

Or, as author Liz Michalski puts it, readers do want and deserve to have breathing space.

You, as an author, must give them that space while also providing enough structure for their imaginations to launch from.

Michalski has a few strategies on how to strike the right descriptive balance at Writer Unboxed. 

Related posts 

• C.S. Lakin: Here's one way your novel can show instead of telling 

• C.S. Lakin: Let your characters tell us who they are