Have you ever heard of those movies in the 1950s and 1960s that used bizarre presentation or ridiculous premises (some of which bordered on threats) to get people to buy tickets to them? Perhaps the most famous of these is The Tingler, which had buzzers hidden under people's seats to go off during certain spots in the film as a way to frighten the audience.
As a marketing ploy, this over-the-top salesmanship sometimes worked to get people to come see what all the fuss was about. However, it was most notable for movies that were lackluster, boring, or just badly written which leaned on the gimmick to actually get people to come and check them out. And, unfortunately, writers are not immune to this when it comes to our work.
So if you're thinking of doing something outside the text with your story, ask if that actually improves the reader's experience, or if you're just trying to use a gimmick to distract from what's actually on the page.
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| The book bursts into flames when you hit page 451... you know, as a reference! |
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The Key Here Is "Outside The Text"
I'm sure right now there are folks out there who are clearing their throats and preparing to name dozens of books that were commercially or critically successful that had bizarre forms of presentation, or which broke conventional rules that publishers balked at. However, before you start putting up counter-examples, the key here is that phrase "outside the text," and what it implies.
Is this thing you're about to bring up an actual part of the experience that is meant to enhance the text of the story as it's being written? Or is it something that exists outside the story whose inclusion won't actually change anything about the story itself, but it is merely meant to seem unique, interesting, or in some cases to distract from the story by being salacious or audacious?
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| Oh you knew this example was coming, didn't you? |
While House of Leaves can be a divisive book (folks seem to either love it or loathe it), but what it does is not a gimmick, despite people accusing it of such. Because while this method of presentation is strange, it is an intended part of the presentation that is specifically meant to alter the experience the reader has while interacting with the text and the story. It is a necessity to that experience, because if you remove it, then you have truncated the book and its story.
So, before you decide to present your story in a strange or unusual way, take a moment to ask yourself why you're doing this. Is this secret code, pages printed backwards so you have to read them in a mirror, or having key pages with a bizarre indent an extra layer that enhances the story? Or are they just meant to be a quirk that shakes your reader out of falling asleep when they turn the page?
As an example, if you are writing a memoir of a spy, then the methods of disguising coded language and slipping in secret messages through the text that have to be decoded could absolutely turn the book into a puzzle that needs to be solved in order to get the full story. That is not a gimmick, but a part of the intended reading experience. Are you writing a fantasy story where the protagonist doesn't understand the language of an underground species of elves they've been taken prisoner by, so you make your own language in order for the reader to learn words along with the protagonist so they can then go back and re-read the parts they didn't understand before? That can be part of the intended experience.
So what is a gimmick, then? Well, a gimmick would be something like claiming there's a secret curse in the book, even if that curse has nothing to do with the story it's telling. Or insisting that the text be written with dialogue in red ink. Perhaps including fake bloodstains on the paper, hoping that will make the horror novel feel that much more gripping. A gimmick is something that exists outside the text, but which isn't actually necessary to the experience of reading that text.
At the end of the day, ask yourself two things:
- Is the text of my story good and polished?
- Is this other element something that enhances the story, and adds depth to it?
If this thing you're presenting as unique and interesting could just be ignored or removed without changing the reading experience in a meaningful way, then it's a gimmick. And, generally speaking, gimmicks are not something you want to use as a hallmark of your writing.
As always, you can do whatever you want with your story and your book... but consider if people are going to remember the story, or the gimmick. Because if the story isn't center stage, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.
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