People will figure it out
My wife loves Alien and the other week, in preparation for playing Alien RPG, we watched the film. I don't know how many times she's watched it; it was probably my fourth.
So there's this part where someone gets eaten (spoilers, if you've not seen Alien: people get eaten) then Ripley and friend relate to the group what happened.
I don't think this would happen in a modern movie. There are a lot of things in Alien that wouldn't happen in a modern movie but I'm picking this.
While the guy is being eaten there's no indication Ripley and friend are there. We don't see them, we don't hear them. So this could be interpreted as a plot hole. How can they later relate this information?
But of course they were there. We know they were in pursuit. It feels like in a film now there'd be reaction shots to really hammer it all home. But the scene stays in the pov of the guy being chomped. Because people will figure it out.
Similarly, Alien doesn't go in for big sciencey explanations. Big sciencey explanations are always simultaneously too much and not enough. They usually just draw attention to how little sense they make. I'm a big fan of an "It works because it does." If it's halfway plausible people will figure it out.
This isn't the same as relying on the audience remembering a tiny piece of lore in densely packed multi-book series. Or pulling a gotcha no one could ever see coming because it was deliberately obfuscated. That's not trusting the audience, that's slippery behaviour.
Of course this is perilous. I remember an episode of a TV show where there was a two-month time jump. It was referenced three times in the episode. Lightly, because I remember thinking it was very natural. But by the third time I was like "Okay! We get it!"
Some people did not get it. Many questions were asked in the fandom.
There's a quote by Arthur Ransome that I do not approve of but at the same time use a lot.
Better drowned than duffers if not duffers won't drown
A telegram from a dad justifying choices that would nowadays involve social services.
Writers should write for the people who care because the people who don't care... don't care.
I'm not dunking on people watching Netflix while on their phones - I watch Netflix while on my phone. As people have always been reading or washing up or sewing or whatever while watching TV. This is not new. But if I'm reading while watching TV I know I'm not picking up everything the TV is doing. If I wanted to concentrate on it I would. But I'm okay not concentrating on some completely bland crimes and murders show my wife is watching.
But when I'm watching I'm actually watching and I want to be treated like I'm actually watching. When I'm reading I want to be treated like I'm actually reading.
I was going to call this post 'High trust writing' but that sounds way too serious. Except it's true.
It's scary, of course it's scary. People might come away from your story thinking completely different things than you intended. People often do! Is beating people over the head preferable to that though?
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