““An author in his work must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere,” he famously wrote in one of his letters, in 1852. “Art being a second nature, the creator of that nature must operate with analogous procedures: let there be felt in every atom, every aspect, a hidden, infinite impassivity. The effect on the spectator must be a kind of amazement. How did it all come about!”” (James Wood, How Fiction Works)
WRITING EXERCISE: The Imperceptible Author Prompt
Key Techniques Illustrated by the Quotation:
1. Authorial Invisibility: The writer orchestrates character, setting, and plot without drawing attention to themselves. The prose should not overtly instruct, editorialize, or moralize.
2. Total Immersion through Detail: The world of the story is so fully realized—emotionally and sensorially—that it seems to exist without the writer.
3. Controlled Emotional Distance: Characters may be deeply rendered, but the author’s hand remains steady and cool, never indulgent. The emotional effect must be earned, not declared.
Writing Prompt (500 words):
Write a scene from the perspective of a character who has just learned a life-altering truth—something that changes their perception of themselves, someone close to them, or the world. The character cannot speak this truth aloud, and no internal monologue should directly state how they feel about it. Show the truth and its impact entirely through behavior, gesture, silence, tone, environment, and subtext in dialogue. The narrator must remain entirely outside the character’s emotional expression—observing but not interpreting.
Anchor the scene in one specific physical location. The moment must feel mundane on the surface (a commute, cooking dinner, a walk in the park), but charged with invisible tension. Allow the world to continue around the character unchanged, even as everything inside them is altered.
Evaluation Criteria for a Successful Response:
• The author’s voice does not intrude or explain the character’s feelings. No telling, only showing.
• The physical details of the world serve as mirrors or counterpoints to the character’s internal state.
• The emotional weight is conveyed with restraint—precision over drama, compression over exposition.
• The reader should feel a gradual dawning, a delayed but powerful realization, as if glimpsing the truth indirectly.
• The language should be exact, vivid, and economical.
Weak Response Example:
“He felt devastated. The news hit him like a truck. How could she have lied to him all these years? He didn’t know what to think.”
This is overt telling, full of clichés, with no use of scene, setting, or action to evoke emotion.
Strong Response Example:
“He turned the spoon three times in the soup, then laid it on the counter without tasting it. The cat batted at his sock. He didn’t move. Outside, a delivery truck let out a sharp, wheezing sigh. The spoon slid off the counter. He didn’t pick it up.”
Every detail contributes to mood and revelation, but the author says nothing directly. The effect is cumulative and subtextual.
Follow-Up Questions for Workshopping or Revision:
• Where is the author explaining instead of letting the scene carry the meaning?
• What detail, if removed, would collapse the emotional weight of the piece?
• Does the reader feel the shift in the character without being told how to feel?
• Is there a moment where the prose becomes too ornamental or attention-seeking?
Recommended Reading:
Excerpt from Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (particularly the early dinner scene after the protagonist’s fall from grace). Coetzee exemplifies this technique: narrating profound transformation without authorial interpretation, letting objects, gestures, and silences do the work.
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