The Narrator's Hindsight and When It Should Intrude
Launch library · evergreen read
A memoirist writing about their younger self inevitably knows things that self could not have known at the time of writing. Deciding when to let that later knowledge intrude on the page is one of the more delicate craft decisions a writer must make throughout the whole manuscript, from first page to last.
Too much hindsight, constant reminders of how things eventually turned out, can rob a scene of its original suspense entirely. It tells the reader the ending before the moment has been allowed to unfold on its own terms, undermining the tension the writer worked carefully to build up.
Too little hindsight, on the other hand, can leave a reader without the perspective that makes a memoir more than a diary. The strongest writing tends to withhold hindsight during the scene itself, then offer it afterwards, once the moment has had room to properly breathe on the page for the reader.