Do You Spoonfeed, or Do You Dance?

[Aurethius]

Here's the question. Do you Spoonfeed, or do you Dance?

These are made-up terms I came up with because I don't know the technical terms for what I'm about to describe. Figured the topic title would catch more eyes anyway.

Both are methods of conveying a point, a description, an action, whatever your purpose for a section of writing might be.

Spoonfeeding is handing the reader that point or description directly. "The town was grim and depressing." is a fantastic example of what I mean. It tells the reader exactly what you want them to think about the topic. It's simple, and its probably boring most of the time, but you have completed your task of delivering to the reader your purpose. Or have you?

With the bland simplicity of the Spoonfeeding technique, you may have less impact. Do the words really get through to the reader in a way that you want it to, or are they too short and simple to have a lasting image in the mind of the audience? Spoonfeeding is not necessarily just one spoon though, it can be multiple spoons, but even if you are plainly and concisely describing something, if it is too simple, the reader may end up ignoring it.


Dancing is taking that point or description, breaking it up into little pieces, changing the flavor of each piece slightly, and then sprinkling them all around the reader, hoping that they will gather up all the pieces, put em together, and taste the full rainbow of your point or description. "The trees hung low around the town, dragged down by the weight of the melting winter snow. On the streets, the drab gray houses, blah blah". Dancing can mean using a lot of words with feeling to them, words with their own connotations that you hope the reader makes. Terms like "Gray, Dragged Down, Melting" might be words you would use to bring about the idea that a town is grim and depressing, rather than simply saying that's what the town was. It's complex, and probably pretty interesting, but you have completed your task of delivering to the reader your purpose. Or have you?

With Dancing, you might confuse the reader, or your underlying point might be masked by your work. Maybe you wrote too much, or tried to use too many big words to impress someone, or sprinkled a few too many different flavors around the reader until the reader had no idea what you were trying to make. If you go on too much about the drab gray houses and the low-hanging trees, maybe the reader will completely miss your point.


Now naturally, some folks will say "I do both, sometimes I feel its better for...", or "It depends on the nature of my writing" or something like that. A person who says that is, in my mind, a Dancer deep down. If your answer to an 'A or B' question makes you feel the need to provide situations of using A or B, or how it isn't fair to ask someone to choose one or the other, then you're already demonstrating a predisposition toward a Dancer, ie you appear to have a tendency to elaborate, be complex (or trying to be complex), be verbose, take a long road to travel a short distance (even if you're doing it for the view, to continue the metaphor). You do not want to commit to A or B because you think you do a little bit of both, so as a defence mechanism, you Dance.

Or

You might use Spoonfeeding to state that you are, in fact, a Dancer. Does this not indicate that you tend towards Spoonfeeding?! Presenting your thoughts on whether you Spoonfeed or Dance, in this very thread, might just help you understand which you truly tend to do!

Or maybe not. Which is fine, because you are entitled to your personal beliefs and aspects.


If there's any confusion over these home-grown terms, maybe somebody out there knows the technical terms, or at least understands what I'm tryin to get at, and can help me out here.

In any case, do you Spoonfeed, or do you Dance?

[Weiss]

This is actually the most prominent flaw in my writing. It's the one thing I've been trying hardest to improve, and I have yet to make any leaps or bounds in the right direction.

To simplify what you've said, based on my interpretation: there are some people who will tell the reader exactly what is going on by stating it clearly in the text; on the other hand, there are some who will provide imagery through details so that the reader can figure out what's going on for themselves.

I couldn't agree more with what you've stated as a response to each scenario. In the case of spoon-feeding, you can effectively kill off the mood by being too abrupt. By telling the reader, "Hey, this place is spooky," you may have established the intended feeling of the scene, but you haven't evoked any amount of feeling from the reader. On the other hand, if you describe the setting, applying a few carefully chosen adjectives to truly build a sense of eeriness and dread, the reader will be sucked into the suspense of the scene.

Unfortunately, as you said, it's possible to go too far. You could suck the reader so far into the scene that they can't claw their way back out. If you describe every small detail down to the letter, you risk killing the mood just as much as if you had spoon-fed it to them.

No one wants to know how many icicles are hanging from the edge of the drab gray house's roof. No one cares that the Jack-o'-Lanterns' eyes are slanted, or that their teeth are pointy instead of square. There's no merit to describing the footprints in the snow. Unless it's central to the plot, none of that matters, and the reader doesn't care. The reader wants impact. They want to be allowed that small freedom to create the rest of the scene with their imagination, so that the image they conjure is one that is unique and personal to them. Then, when they've established the mood and the setting, they want you to deliver the plot - the pièce de résistance!

When I write, I have a natural tendency to want to create an understanding in the reader. I want them to see what I'm seeing, because I imagine it being a certain way and don't want them to miss out on that scene. That's a habit I've been trying to break. The thing my writing most lacks is imagery - the use of words that evoke feelings from the reader, rather than simply explaining exactly what's going on - and it's my goal as an artist to improve upon that very element in my work.

[Bad Kitty]

I do both, as and when they are appropriate. Now let me explain.

The first time I make mention of a town while writing, I'll describe the general appearance of the place. I won't say 'the town was a grim-faced apparition of industry' until after I've described what it looks like. Every post thereafter I'll describe the town in much simpler terms; the main description has been done, now it's time to scale back on the verbosity.

In the first post, I want my readers to see that it's a grim place from the description of soot-stained, grey buildings with windows like blind, silver eyes. I want my readers to know that the air smells of burning iron, and that every breath makes their throat tickle from the soot and grime they're inhaling. I want them to see the people; from the world-weary beggars dressed in their drab, mud-stained clothing, to the well-to-do with their grim expressions and equally drab,expensive fashions. I want the sounds of the city; the neigh of horses, the clack of carriage wheels, the distant calls of the pedlar trying to sell his newspapers to the uncaring crowd, and the subtle sound of distant machinery at work.

Now, in the following posts, I'll simply brush over the description of the town. The only thing I really describe are things central to the plot, with occasional mention of a flavourful characteristic of the place. It is far easier to introduce someone to the place and situation, and then occasionally remind them of it's character, than it is to constantly shove it in their face.

It takes experience and careful thought to find out the exact amount of each technique to use. That might be why my posts take such a long time in coming¹; unless I'm extremely inspired, I need to deliberate over what to give the readers of my work. Do I need to make something obvious, and pound them over the head with one vital fact that's important to the plot, or do I want to hide it in a flavourful description and make people kick themselves when it suddenly becomes obvious that it was there all along?

Spoonfeeding information to people has it's place in writing. Putting hints in between words like a maddened, rollerskate-wearing tapdancer also has it's place. Working out which one needs to go where is the trick.



1 Other times it's due to the intervention of a particularly interesting video game. Damn you, short attention span, damn you to hell!

[Bird of Hermes]

Would doing both be called "Spoon-dancing"?

[Bad Kitty]

Would doing both be called "Spoon-dancing"?

Dance-spoo- No, wait, 'Spoon-Dancing' has a better ring to it.

[MetalEgo]

Spoon-Dancing, hehehe.

I'm a little ADHD, so I kinda have problems dancing. I -will- go into how those Jack-o-lanterns have pointed teeth and I won't even give the reader the time of day. Like, literally, I won't tell them what time of day it is. Ahahaha.

That's an exaggeration, I promise. I usually work opposite the way Bad Kitty described, starting off with "It was a dark and stormy night" and then getting more specific with the trees and merciless rain lashing against ancient window panes and la la la. My characters are kinda spoonfeedy, though. I think most people are, I mean, nobody actually -says- "The rain is lashing against the window panes with such an awful racket!" no, they're gonna say, "It's, uh... It's kinda raining outside, dude."

[Kaito]

Well one of the first things I learned when I started writing (and I only started when I was nineteen.. I read my first book when I was sixteen, sue me), and altogether one of the most important things about it, if not THE most important thing is this:
Don't explain. Show.

I think if you, the author, plays what he writes in his head like a movie, and writes exactly what the movie depicts, you can get amazing results. To take your example:
"The town was grim and depressing."
If it was a movie, and my character would just be entering it, it would be something like this: (imagine this is a movie screen)
"He strode past the first building of the town, an old one, worn out like all the others in this town, parts missing, the door looked as if it would fall off any moment. The street seemed darker each step he took, the wind colder. You just feel when a town is dead. This one, he was sure, wasn't very alive."
Might not be the greatest example, but I usually don't describe the athmosphere much. I usually let my characters handle it mostly, same principle, though: I don't say "he was afraid of the battle", but I say "cold sweat ran down his neck as he looked at his opponent, his legs trembling, barely supporting his weight anymore. He thought about running briefly. Running? He wasn't sure if he began moving that his legs would obey. There was nothing he could do but fight. And hope. Hope dies last. Or so he hoped."

Well, anyways, I think I'm a dancer by your standard, but who knows. Spoonfeeding, anyways, is a really bad practice and makes reading boring and tedious. What I would be more interested in would be, what different types of 'Dancing' would you think there are?

[Sin]

Direct and Indirect narrative. It's one of those things that is interesting enough that I managed to memorize it. Now if only I knew my times tables...

But I love the words you came up for it, it made me laugh. :3 But I thought you might want to know the words.

I do both. Sometimes if I don't, I'll give you 6 paragraphs on things you really don't want to know. But usually I offer details as best as I can... I honestly think I spoonfeed a lot more than people say I do, but there's so much detail in it that I guess it counts as dancing...

Maybe I'm just a dancing spoon?

[Kaislynn]

I think having a strong skill with indirect/dancing is an excellent writing tool and it often leads to dynamic and vivid storytelling. However, I also thing that sometimes, depending on the narrative style, design, and purpose, spoon-feeding can reveal something in an indirect way. Also, sometimes telling gets used as a speed and ease tool I know I am most likely to do it when I'm rushed lol

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