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Creative Writers – do you know how to use inference? Read this article to sharpen your skills!
Creative Writers Use Inference to Say More by Saying Less
All creative writers use inference, whether by choice or by accident. You may think, “If I’m using it by accident, why should I spend my time studying it? ” You should study it because you can use the technique more effectively if you understand all the ramifications involved.
This is inference:
Mary was in labor. She had a monkey.
This is the type of headlines you read in the Enquirer and other such magazines. On the surface, one could assume the following:
- A woman had mated with a monkey and got pregnant
- She went to the hospital to give birth
- Her baby wasn’t a child, it was a monkey
- It was a historical event
- This event would open new doors to the medical community and scientists
- The news media would hound the monkey child throughout its life
- Documentaries would undoubtedly be created
- A movie would be in the making
Thoughts would flood your mind. Did the lady take a safari? Was she attacked by a monkey or an ape? One might wonder where her husband was? Or was she married? Will her family ever be able to accept or love the monkey baby? People might think it had human characteristics?
But if you know what I was thinking, you would know that Mary was in labor, but she owned a monkey. Can you see what inference can do for you?
Mystery writers make a habit of misleading the reader when they drop clues that can be read two different ways. You can also use inference in games and riddles.
Readers almost ask to be mislead, and that is what inference does. The reader’s mind will always jump past the immediate and form its own conclusions, based on the information they have been fed. If the author has the inclination, he can change the mental picture within a sentence.
Another example:
The bride collapsed in tears, and could not be consoled.
We might think:
- The groom didn’t show up for the wedding
- Someone dropped the wedding cake
- The organist or preacher could not be there
We could imagine all sorts of things, but what I’m actually thinking is that her father died of a heart attack during the wedding. But going from what I said, it is improbable that anyone would conclude the proper thing. Readers infer the obvious meaning into an incomplete load of information and will form their own hypotheses. Most writers don’t realize they already use inference.
Inference is one of the greatest tools you will ever have. You could even infer that a man is having an affair with his sister-in-law, and never say that. You can further infer that they are having a love affair, that the husband knows nothing at all about it, but hubby is about to find out. You could say a gun was involved and make the reader think someone is going to die.
You can use inference in a wise way and say more by saying less.
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