Vague vs. Ambiguous - good blog article

kennyc · Jan 16, 2016

Ran across this good piece on Vague vs Ambiguous writing. Vague is not good, ambiguous can be.

[h=3]Vague Vs. Ambiguous: Which are You Writing?[/h]

Imagine you sat down and started reading a story that opened like this.

"What are those people doing out here?"
"I don't know."
Poppy sighed and ran a hand through her hair. The woman was very old. Her sister took off her scarf and went inside.
"How many days until Wind Set Day?" the prophetess asked.
"Four, maybe five, perhaps," she said.
How many people are in the story? Two? Four? What's the setting? Since someone goes inside, we can assume the characters are outside of something, so they are probably outdoors, but we don't know for sure. And what does the sister go inside of? A house? A store? A box? What kind? What's "Wind Set Day"?

These are all things we can guess at, but we can't really get a picture of what is going on. It's vague. Unfortunately a lot of unpublished stories start this way. Later in this post, I'll go more into why new writers often make the mistake of starting like this and exactly how it works to create a problem. (And yes, of course, all rules are made to be broken).
.....

http://www.septembercfawkes.com/2016/01/vague-vs-ambigious-which-are-you-writing.html

and it mentions Jabberwocky and The Yellow Wallpaper two of my favorites.
I must now go and re-read The Yellow Wallpaper!

Tazlima · Jan 16, 2016

Really interesting and helpful. Thanks for the link!

kennyc · Jan 16, 2016

Tazlima said:
Really interesting and helpful. Thanks for the link!

You're welcome! It's good food for thought!

blacbird · Jan 16, 2016

kennyc said:
Ran across this good piece on Vague vs Ambiguous writing. Vague is not good, ambiguous can be.

Ambiguous can also not be. Ambiguity used with intelligent intent by a writer can be an effective technique. Accidental ambiguity usually accomplishes nothing more than confusing the reader.

caw

WriterDude · Jan 17, 2016

Without reading the article. I do have to ask, is it important to know how many people there are and what colour knickers they're wearing on the first page? Isn't that the purpose of reading on? From that small snippet, I know there are some people doing something that might be interesting and I'll read on to find out what.

The scarf and prophetess give some clue to the setting. I'm more interested in something interesting happening in an ambiguous or vague setting, than knowing a setting or character before anything of interest happens in it.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 17, 2016

WriterDude said:
I'm more interested in something interesting happening in an ambiguous or vague setting, than knowing a setting or character before anything of interest happens in it.

Everyone says that, at least on writer forums, but in the world of readers who never write, I find this to be completely untrue.

WriterDude · Jan 18, 2016

Jamesaritchie said:
Everyone says that, at least on writer forums, but in the world of readers who never write, I find this to be completely untrue.

Maybe. I never had feedback from a regular non writery reader and the broad concensus here is that the who and where is more important than the what in the first few sentences. Look at the First Three Line critique thread.

What the regular reader has though, when they read that first paragraph, and what the writery crit groups lack, is a front cover and a rear blurb. The reader knew enough about the context when they decided to start reading the first. To me, the first lines should provide intrigue, not detail.

I'll agree though that the quoted sample was unclear as to who was speaking, but that's different to being vague.

ManInBlack · Jan 18, 2016

WriterDude said:
Without reading the article. I do have to ask, is it important to know how many people there are and what colour knickers they're wearing on the first page? Isn't that the purpose of reading on? From that small snippet, I know there are some people doing something that might be interesting and I'll read on to find out what.

The scarf and prophetess give some clue to the setting. I'm more interested in something interesting happening in an ambiguous or vague setting, than knowing a setting or character before anything of interest happens in it.

Dialogue is useless if you're too busy trying to guess whether or not the same person is talking to actually figure out the meaning of the conversation.

Vague vs. Ambiguous - good blog article

kennyc

Tazlima

kennyc

blacbird

WriterDude

Writer?

Jamesaritchie

WriterDude

Writer?

ManInBlack