If you’ve ever seen or read a review of a book or a film, you may have heard the critic say that the work doesn’t respect its audience. I believe that one of the worst things a work of fiction can do is to treat its audience with disrespect. The last thing people want from their entertainment is to be treated condescendingly by it.

 

Aretha Franklin singing about the importance of respect.

 

To me, a piece with no respect for its audience is essentially a writing crime. However, I also feel that this most egregious of crimes is not one that is often purposefully committed. A lot of things that define condescending writing can be the result of inexperience or a lack of awareness on the author’s part. With some practice and help from others, the bits and pieces in a written piece that build up to create an overall condescending tone can be resolved.

 

 

A common criticism among novice writers is that there is too much telling and not enough showing. Telling instead of showing is a mistake that can be made in several different contexts and each of these contexts can leave different impressions on the reader. The primary way that telling-not-showing can come off as condescending is when it is used to state the obvious or what the author thinks should be obvious. Here are some examples and a counterexample:

 

 

 

Scenario: A knight is fighting a dragon.

Intended takeaway: The knight is brave.

 

 

• Example 1: Sir Gregory bravely fought the dragon.
  • Issue: By just telling the audience an attribute of a character, you prevent the audience from being able to a) immerse themselves in your story and b) see exactly what happens so they can judge how brave the knight is for themselves.

 

 

• Example 2: Sir Gregory drew his sword and ran at the beast. The dragon shot flames towards the brave knight, but Sir Gregory kept running towards it.
  • Issue: Telling the audience that the knight is brave isn’t necessary here. It feels redundant and pointless. Most people would assume that the knight was brave because of his actions.

 

 

• Counterexample: Sir Gregory drew his sword and ran at the beast. The dragon shot flames at him, but Sir Gregory kept running towards it. He ducked and rolled under the wall of fire at the last second before rising back to his feet to charge the monster again.

 

 

Another way that writing can come off as condescending is if it repeatedly hits audiences over the head with specific details. This mistake is hard to describe in one concrete example because it typically takes place within longer works. There are two main ways this issue tends to manifest in writing: repeating a description a seemingly unnatural amount of times and a lack of subtlety in motif building.

 

 

Description repetition isn’t always condescending. The Harry Potter books typically reuse the same descriptions for characters multiple times within the same book. What makes description repetition feel disrespectful is if the same wordings occur frequently within a short period of time or if the same ideas are reinforced over and over.

 

For instance:

 

“How old are you, little girl?”

 

The child took her thumb out of her mouth.

 

“I’m almost seven years old!” The young girl said in her squeaky voice. She gave her teddy bear a squeeze before sucking on her thumb once more.

 

 

This scenario takes every opportunity to remind audiences that the character shown here is a little girl in a way that feels needlessly repetitive. Most audiences could assume from the initial question or from the girl’s response, her age range. If these kinds of descriptions or ideas were laid out like this for the rest of the story, audiences would most likely feel disrespected.

 

 

Much like telling-not-showing, a lack of subtlety in motif building is typically done out of lack of experience. Motifs, when implemented correctly, can add incredible depth to a story, but when used in a way that sticks out from the story, it can seem condescending. As a side note, I’m not saying that new writers should avoid writing motifs. The only way to get good at writing motifs is by writing motifs. Good use of motif should be detectable to an audience but not feel like it’s under a giant blinking sign that reads “MOTIF HERE.” The only advice I can give for using motifs is to notice them as you consume fiction and to observe how different works find the delicate balance between subtlety and perceptibility.

 

 

In general, writing without respect for the audience is something that arises from a lack of trust. A lot of new writers fear that they’ll fail to get points across and so overcompensate using the techniques described here. However, the actual writing only accounts for one half of the magic of fictional storytelling. The other half is supplied by the audience when they watch or read your finished product. As a writer, the audience trusts you to tell them a coherent interesting story. By writing in a way that respects your audience, you’re not only trusting them to create the other half of the magic; you’re trusting yourself and your abilities as well.