Some things I am not telling you

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

From MWT's Tumblr:

meganwhalenturner:

Somebody in a message a while back referred to my “No Spoilers” policy and seeing Seanan McGuire’s post reminded me of it.  I want to clarify–I don’t have a No Spoilers Policy.  I have a Not Telling policy.

I’m Not Telling what’s in the next book.

I’m Not Telling why something was in the last book.

I am Not Telling what things mean.

I am Not Telling anything I haven’t already put on the page.

What I hope is  …  I am Not Telling You What to Think.

This isn’t an easy policy to stick to. I’m always tempted to tell people what I think (about anything, really, don’t let me get started) and I do lapse, especially in small group settings that involve too much caffeine or in some cases, alcohol, and some day when readers have had time to make up their own minds, I expect I’ll loosen up about this. (Like Ray Bradbury, in 40 years I am going to tell you that The Thief was really all about the evils of television.)  I don’t have this policy because it’s the moral high ground.  It’s a personal thing.  I like to make up my own mind about what I read– I want to offer my readers the same space.  I never want something I say to get in the way of you creating the story you want in your own head.

Comments

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

I do feel like authors make the mistake sometime of over explaining things after the fact, and people are always like: that's not how I imagined it!

I love that you, Megan, treat your readers as intelligent people and never tell us that we're "wrong" about anything.

BTW, when we over excitedly ask you questions, we generally don't actually want to know, we just want you to say the thing. :)

Agreed!

[an-english-girl.livejournal.com]

I wanted to say all these things when I read Megan's post, but Lady Jane kindly said them for me :)
So I just add "Hear! Hear!" -- particularly to the asking questions for the joy of getting Megan to say 'Not Telling'
;D

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Megan said once that she demands a lot of her readers, and I think that's true. That's where discussion groups, like Sounis, are so important! I swear I wouldn't have gotten so much out of the books if I hadn't had y'all to help me make sense of everything.

I do especially hate it when a book in a series spends so...much...time recapping what's gone of before. Megan hurls you into the deep end of the pool and it doesn't matter whether or not you've read the previous books in the series, each one can be your first and each spoil the others.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely nothing to add that this comment hasn't already stated, so... cosigned?

(It does remind me of that time MWT judged the SLJ Battle of the Kids' Books and advanced The Lost Conspiracy. She said something similar.)

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I have so much respect for this.

And I'm sure the evils of television will be obvious in retrospect.

[sunsethill.livejournal.com]

This attitude is rather brilliant! At first, it seems wonderful to get all the spoilers, but then the author ends up spoiling your enjoyment of the story in some way, and you just wish they would SHUT UP!! I definitely feel that way in the Harry Potter fandom when Rowling just can't leave well enough alone and keeps releasing "new information" that totally closes down all manner of people's "head canons" because she just can't seem to let readers develop their own ideas about the text of the stories.