Navigate

Can you imagine your navigation app interrupting your drive with, "you should have turned left two minutes ago".

You would think it was broken.

But, the same thing happens in writing all the time. It happens because the writer forgets they're part navigator, leading the reader through:

• Mood [What’s happening]
• Time [When it happens]
• People [Who’s doing it]
  
  

When you don't navigate well, your reader gets lost.

Here’s how to best guide them.

There are literary signposts you can use to make navigating mood easier for your reader.

Mood changes might start with the word “but”, or “meanwhile”, or “sadly”.

You know the signposts already. The problem isn't how you navigate, rather when you navigate. You can throw your reader off the scent if you put these signposts in the middle or at the end of sentences.

Here's an example of a writer navigating mood poorly.

"Ali is fluent in French, German, and Italian. Swedish is something she's only just started learning though."

It's not until the finale and the word “though” that the reader can finally conclude that Ali isn't fluent in Swedish. This is a basic sentence too. It only gets more confusing from here. Here's a better version of that sentence.

"Ali is fluent in French, German, and Italian. But, she's only just started learning Swedish."

Your job is to be clear that what follows is different to what went before. The simplest way is to alert your reader straightaway. Stick alerting words like “but”, “later”, “still”, “meanwhile”, and “sadly” upfront.

Your signposts help readers understand they're about to go in a different direction and anything you can do to offer a smooth ride should be done.

When the reader isn’t aware, you risk confusing them, and if done frequently, you risk annoying them. You don’t want to force your reader to decode your work.

Along with bad navigation, having a mood change in the middle of the sentence is awkward, and having it at the end of the sentence is a feeble climax.

Examples:

Before: We could have gone to the cinema. The films that I want to see have stopped showing, sadly.
After: We could have gone to the cinema. Sadly, the films I want to see have stopped showing.

Before: My first business failed. I do have another somewhat related idea, however, that might be more lucrative.
After: My first business failed. But, I do have a somewhat related idea that might be more lucrative.

Before: Lizzie put down her gun. On the other side of town, meanwhile, Cary had picked his up and was heading to the bank.
After: Lizzie put down her gun. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Cary had picked his up and was heading to the bank.

Before: A lobster's shell doesn't grow. The fleshy insides grow until the old shell is cast off and the lobster makes a new one.
After: A lobster's shell doesn't grow. But, the fleshy insides grow until the old shell is cast off and the lobster makes a new one.

In Back to the Future, Marty McFly was always trying to get back somewhere.

Whether he was flirting with his own mother in the 50s or hoverboarding in 2015, Marty always ended up back in the 80s.

It's the same for writing. You need a principal time from which to glance forward and back. It doesn't matter whether you write in the past tense like "I spied her through the fog", or in the present tense like "I spy her through the fog”.

Just choose one to call home.

Here’s a ridiculously clear sentence:

"Jason scooped up Jason's sunglasses and chucked them onto the back seat of Jason's car."

We know who scooped up the sunglasses, who the sunglasses belonged to, and whose car they were chucked into. Jason! But it's inefficient and unforgivably weird.

Language has provided us a solution in pronouns. Here's that sentence, pronouned.

"He scooped up his sunglasses and chucked them onto the back seat of his car."

There are 3 types of pronoun:

1. First person (e.g. I, me, my, we, our)
2. Second person (e.g. you, your)
3. Third person (e.g. he, she, it, his, her)
   
   

They help us refer to people and things without having to name them every time. But when we use pronouns to make sentences like these more efficient, we trade some level of obscurity. And it can get messy quickly if the writer isn't careful to keep the reader on track.

Here are some examples.

"I like visiting London where you can visit Madame Tussauds"

The writer starts with a first person pronoun “I”, but ends with a second person pronoun “you”.

Here's a stumble from third to second person:

"When my dad went to school, you had to call each other by your surname"

My dad, therefore “he” and the third person, ends up transforming into “you” and “your”, the second person.

Make sure the things and people your pronouns refer to are unified. It'll help navigate your reader and they'll trust the guide is in control.

These may seem like pedantic points, but each time you make something clearer you remove a stone from your reader's path. These stones trip the reader up, forcing them to re-read. They now study the path, instead of being stunned by the view you want them to see.

The first problem with re-reads is that your reader could never pinpoint them as the reason they gave up. They'll just think, "it's not that good". The second problem is that you'll never know about it.

So, take the time to navigate well and early.