The Character Moment Most Writers Feel Compelled to Explain

There are types of character moments that make most writers reach for narration immediately after writing it.

Very simply, the character does something, this is something significant, it is something that reveals a great deal about who they are and how they understand the world. And when it’s on the page, the writer feels the pull to follow it with an explanation, which usually involves adding some context or justification to make sure the action is understood the way the writer intends it to be understood.

That pull is worth examining.

Because what it’s actually signaling to the writer, most of the time, is not that the moment needs explanation or that it needs some type of defense, it’s that the writer doesn’t yet trust what the moment is doing on its own.

The moments that don’t need explanation are often the most powerful ones available to a writer. Here is what I mean.