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- #81
Yeah, there are lots of things that promise. The voice and style promise a continuation of the voice and style. This can work in the negative sense also. If the first page is poorly written, that's a promise that the rest will be bad too, hah.
When writing, I think I have a tendency to want subtlety in my early chapters, and perhaps this is a fear of being too on-the-nose or hammering a reader over the head. I'd said in another comment in this thread that the hook and promise are like a Rubicon: once X, Y, Z is put in place—elements of the hook/promise—there's no turning back. So...I may have a fear of commitment too.
But this recent turn in this conversation has reminded me of that scene from the movie Gattaca. If you aren't familiar with the movie, it's about a society in which most successful people have been genetically "improved," genetically tweaked in the test tube. The main character, Vincent, is a "love child," meaning that his parents conceived him the old fashioned way, with no genetic tweaking. His younger brother however was genetically "improved." Long story short, Vincent is able to succeed where no one thought him capable, and near the end of the movie the two brothers are swimming across this large body of water—something they did as children, but before, Vincent was always the weaker brother. This time's different, and his brother Anton is mystified:
Anton: Vincent! How are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this? We have to go back.
Vincent: It's too late for that. We're closer to the other side.
Anton: What other side? You wanna drown us both?
Vincent: You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back.
...Heh, it's about commitment, not holding any reserves.
For as long as I've been on this forum you have spoken of your lack of commitment lol.
Yes, I see this a lot... "I don't want to beat the reader over the head." In my experience I find the opposite to be true. A lot of writers have it so clear in their own mind they think they are being pathetically obvious on the page and it is only barely enough for the reader. I've read stuff in crit groups I LOVED and said it was perfect and the writer has come back saying "Oh really? I thought I was being too heavy handed/crazy/too much."
The only time it is too heavy handed is when it is "on the nose" and I think that is different than what we are talking about here.