To hint at a fault does more mischief than speaking out; for whatever is left for the imagination to finish will not fail to be overdone.
Nature is always hinting at us. It hints over and over again. And suddenly we take the hint.
For me, the game would be to assume a very intelligent reader who can extrapolate a lot from a little. And that's become my definition of art; to get that pitch just right, where I can put a hint on page three, and the reader's ears go up a bit, as opposed to dropping it all on the first page.
I do think that it's always okay to show too little. People will still be interested. So why show too much?
Nudge, nudge. Snap, snap. Grin, grin. Wink, wink, say no more? Could be, could be taken on holiday. Could be yes - swimming costumes. Know what I mean. Candid photography. Know what I mean, nudge nudge.
I'm trying hard not to use a specific reference, but you'll probably know it's you after the first sentence.
You don't want to hit readers over the head like they're completely incapable of picking up on subtlety.
'Almost' can be a polite way of saying something definitely. It withholds the obvious and dangles it just long enough.
I think that it's sexier not to show everything. I feel that people's imaginations can do way more.
One can never produce anything as terrible and impressive as one can awesomely hint about.
The best that can happen is that someone can catch a glimpse of the glory you're hinting at.
Never asking a direct question, even though the other person can guess what it is you want to know.
A too explicit elucidation in education destroys much of the pleasure of learning. There should be room for sly hinters, masters of suggestion.
