I once attended a writing workshop with the Irish author Lia Mills. Several lessons were learnt about writing, but one in particular stuck in my head. It’s a phrase Mills gave us to consider when deciding what to leave in and leave out. She said: “Readers do the rest.”
What she meant was that human beings fill the gaps with prior knowledge, experience, context, presumption, bias and more. It’s a good rule to remember when writing. It allows a reader to become part of the story, leaves room for individual interpretation and lets the author get to the heart of the matter faster. Not every detail needs to be included if enough is implied by what does make it on to the page.
This applies