August 2026 …
A quotation attributed to the noted Russian film director, Andrei Tarkovsky states: “A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.” This truth becomes more apparent with each story I write. It is often a topic of conversation at my writers’ group, especially when discussing works with a moderate to high level of abstraction.
The possibility that a multitude of stories stems from a single piece of writing has led to a shift in how we review each other’s work and provide feedback. Abstract writing often reveals itself by the level of diverse conversation generated. Each person in a meeting will have their own interpretation about the theme and message of a literary work. Inevitably the conversation converges to; what did the author intend with the piece? Rather than pointing out inconsistencies, poor word choice, or unusual phrasing, we now allow the author an opportunity to state what they intended to achieve or convey. Our feedback is then formulated around the question; did they achieve their intention? Sometimes it may even invoke a discussion of whether or not the intention was flawed or too ambitious.
Overly abstract writing can often create a great distance from the reader, leaving them confused and unable to embrace the subtleties of the story. This may not be a sign of a lack of education or experience on the part of the reader, but rather that the writer may have invested too much meaning in too few generic words, resulting in a story with too many possibilities. The piece may have to be read several times and require considerable reflection to link the words and phrases into a consistent narrative that provides something meaningful to the reader. In such a scenario, the reader has to work hard to obtain pleasure from the piece.
One might argue that the task of the author is to take the reader on a single journey from start to finish, stimulating their imagination to create the world and characters where the events of the story take place. Each reader will find a unique connection with a character or storyline, creating both pleasure in reading and motivation to continue to the last page.
The ‘show, don’t tell’ principle encourages a degree of abstraction – that is, providing just enough story to craft an intended arc whilst still allowing the reader’s imagination to ‘fill in the gaps’. Passages where the reader is told that a character is feeling a particular emotion are bland compared with describing behaviours where the character displays such an emotion. The reader is intelligent enough to infer nervousness, anger or happiness by what a character says and does.
I confronted the adage of ‘a thousand stories’ recently. At a pitching event, I presented a synopsis of my novel, Grey of the Night to a literary agent. My pitch focussed on the Laura Grey character because I thought she was the most interesting and engaging part of the novel. This agent questioned why I had written the novel about her, stating that there was a ‘surfeit’ of similar novels and characters. Initially deflated by this, I then took stock and realised that Grey of the Night is not solely about Laura Grey; if anything, her story fills about half of the novel. I was able to rework the synopsis to incorporate the other protagonists – requiring no change to the content of the completed novel. The new synopsis resonated with a second literary agent to such a degree that she requested a copy of the manuscript. I am excited to say that this novel is now under review by this second agent.
I had to shuffle the chapter order to reflect the new pitch, but it brought the manuscript back to the structure of my early drafts. It was therefore a very instinctive process for me to reframe the same story content to a version that piqued the interest of a literary agent. It will take some time to see if the agent wishes to proceed with representing me towards publication, but the experience emphasised that the same story can be interpreted in many different ways. Learning to express a summary that engages with potential readers becomes part of the author’s job; understanding the storyline features that will stimulate a reader’s imagination enough for them to want to start their reading journey.