How to Spotlight Important Prose

This post, originally published on February 25, 2011, is chock full of advice that will ensure that you are communicating well with your readers. 

As your reader engages with the first of your 100,000 words, she wonders where to look for meaning. She seeks clues that will orient her. And she is counting on you as author to point the way toward the material that is most important.

First let me say this: all your words should be important.

But while all words must serve a function, you’ll want some information or images to linger. Here are some of the tools authors use to throw a spotlight on the most important info, with some links to previous BRP posts that explore these techniques further:

Word count
The more words you devote to a character or situation, the more important the reader will expect it to be. This is as true for a paragraph as it is a whole book.

A telling detail

Whether an anachronism or the only detail offered, one detail made prominent will stick in the memory and define a character or situation.

Dialogue

Quotation marks are like flashing neon: “Pay attention. This is important.” So watch that you only put words in the mouths of important characters, and then only important words.

Naming

Keep things simple by only naming characters that will be important to the plot. Supporting characters with no developed arc can sometimes be referred to by the roles they serve.

Manipulating pace

The reader will pay attention as you add words that will slow the pace and evoke the action in gripping detail. Speed up and he’ll snap to attention.

Using bold declarative sentences

I sometimes call this using the voice of God. Leave no room for doubt.

Breaking a grammar rule or three

The rules of grammar set up certain reader expectations; dropping them shakes things up. So go ahead, start a sentence with a preposition. Use truncated phrases. Or one word sentences. When important details drown within long, fully orchestrated passages, you’ve got to do something. Pluck.

Positioning

Important material will be noticed more if you place it at the end of a sentence, where it can resonate across the space created by a period, section break, or chapter end. As long as you don't let the technique hijack your prose, you can amplify the effect by letting the sentence stand alone as its own paragraph.

Em-dashes, semi-colons, colons, and parentheses

These punctuation marks, less often used, can grab attention in ways a comma or period cannot.

Purposeful repetition

It’s like pounding the gavel twice: those who didn’t get it the first time might pick it up the second: That's when he tripped. Tripped right over the makeshift sound system and fell face down into the wedding cake.

Make a bulleted list

Generally a nonfiction technique, I have seen this used to great effect in fiction as well.
(Please note that I did not mention italics, capital letters, and exclamation points. Why use surface glitter when we can power our stories with real craft?)

The heat generated by a spotlight reminds us it is a powerful tool, so watch out. Use it too often and you’ll burn yourself; use it indiscriminately and you’ll confuse the reader and forfeit his confidence in your ability to tell your tale.

If your readers have sometimes missed important details in your storytelling—or worse, missed the point altogether—see if using these techniques might help you communicate more effectively. And if you have other techniques, please share!

Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation and line editing service. Her debut novel, The Art of Falling, will be released by Sourcebooks on January 28, 2014. It is now available for pre-order. Her monthly series, "Turning Whine into Gold," appears at Writers in the Storm. Connect with Kathryn at her Facebook Author Page and Twitter.