There's a whole lot of information that just isn't known in a story. And when I am reading a person's story, I am always asking for that information. "What's the deal with his parents?" "Who did start the fire?" "What could have possibly instilled an irrational fear of cotton candy?"
I ask those questions within the first few chapters of a story and part of me is upset that I don't know right away. But nowadays I bite my tongue because I know that all those answers are coming. I will not talk about a story until I have read it through once. Stories involve a certain amount of mystery and the satisfaction comes later on when the mystery is solved.
Sometimes, though, the mystery is with the author. For example, I sometimes write a story and just can't decide what I want to be the truth. What history do I want my character to have? What exactly is her relationship to the other main character? Well, if I don't know, I leave it up in the air. I leave it for the readers to ponder and argue over.
But that is not mystery. That's just ambiguity. And I believe that ambiguity is a bad thing in writing. I find it to be a sign of weak and inferiorly constructed worlds.
When the audience doesn't know something, it's mystery. When the author doesn't know something, it's ambiguity.
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