Prose & StyleFoundational
Restraint
The discipline of not saying more than the moment can use.
Principle
Restraint trusts pressure, detail, and reader inference to do their work.
Takeaways
- It can govern description, emotion, exposition, dialogue, and theme.
- Restraint is not withholding everything; it is proportion.
- The stronger the scene's pressure, the less explanation it may need.
Overview
Restraint is the broad craft virtue behind less-is-more effects. It means choosing proportion: enough detail to embody, enough explanation to orient, enough emotion to land, and enough silence for the reader to enter.
Examples
- A reunion scene lets the characters talk about luggage because the emotional history is already active.
- A violent discovery is described through one practical action rather than a flood of commentary.