Readers' imagination and filling in the blanks

[owl]

During the last episode of the series Characters A and B left Character C in a rather unpleasant situation because they thought he was dead (which he was, briefly). This spawned a lot of fics in which A and B go back to rescue C. C is canonically possessed of considerable technical knowledge and resource, not to mention charm. My fic had him getting himself out of the situation (which is what I think is likely to happen in the next series) and going on a desperate wild-goose chase after A and B, and eventually finding them with a lot of luck.

I didn't go into detail of the actual escape, I just stated that it happened and left it up to the readers on the basis that their imaginations would be equal to it. One person got back to me asking about it, and I responded with two of my canon speculations. The reader then responded: Thanks, you should really put these things in your fic you know. Plot holes can grind on people.

Now the point of the fic wasn't 'What happened to C after the series finished'. It wasn't plot driven; the focus of the fic was how much C wanted to find his friends, how happy they were to see him and how C reacted to certain changes in A that also happened in the last episode of the series. It was a character-story, not a plot- or event-story. I might go back and write the event-story, or the next series may fill it in better than I could.

The purpose of this is to ask: was I expecting to much of my readers? I know with torture and sex scenes it's often more effective to fade to black and let the reader's imagination fill in the blank. Can you do that with a bald statement: getting out of there wasn't a problem cos C is so cool? Is it too much to expect that readers can work out what the story's meant to be about?

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Is it too much to expect that readers can work out what the story's meant to be about?

I *hope* not... *is planning on doing Rose/Nyssa fic with little to no explanation of why Rose has ended up with the Fifth Doctor because, well, that'd require stopping the story for a page* Depends on the reader, I suppose?

[shipaholic.livejournal.com]

Since character C is the great Captain Jack, I'd be inclined to say "he got out 'cause he's cool" is a sufficient explanation. ;) But maybe a brief sentence giving more details wouldn't hurt.

[sreya.livejournal.com]

Really, if you're going with getting out of there wasn't a problem cos C is so cool? then leaving it open-ended is probably the better way to go, because otherwise you'd get the opposite problem of "Oh, good golly, that is just so lame" which of course you don't want either.

Readers. Can't understand 'em, can't live without 'em. :~p

[sreya.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! Where'd you find the code for the tag component on the right?

[owl]

Somewhere on component_help. I can emial you the code if you wasnt it.