The most compelling part for me in the first four chapters of McCloud’s book was in chapter three when he states that, we as storytellers have to trust that our audience will be able to fill in the gaps of the story for themselves. This concept really drives home the concept of “show not tell.” And that sometimes it may be better not to give all the details of the action in between actions as it isn’t always necessary to complete the narrative. For me, those in-between moments of the frames are what make a movie/film so worthwhile. It adds me, the viewer, to the story as I get to be involved in the interpretation of the story. That added layer of mystery makes it more engaging. It was a bit amusing to read that at the beginning of the chapter, McCloud talked about how when he was a kid he thought the world revolved around him and was only in motion when he was there to perceive it. This is something I also considered as a kid. Even now it’s sometimes perplexing to imagine that life is happening somewhere else without you experiencing it. It’s quite profound.
In approaching the narrative project, taking into consideration not giving too much away and allowing the story the right amount of visual gaps to give the viewer/reader somewhat of control over how the story is perceived will be an important factor in how I write the story. I think having viewer interaction with the story is something very hard to do, as there is quite a bit of assumption that you as a writer must know how to balance.