Reading Signposts: Contrast & Contradiction
Greetings and salutations Scribblers!
We’ve been working through the six Reading Signposts as described in Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers, and Robert E. Probst. This book is designed for classroom reading and ELA teachers, but the reading signposts they talk about are excellent for authors to be aware of as well. Not only are they elements of good storytelling, but if you’re hoping your novel ends up as part of a classroom curriculum, taking note of these six signposts could help convince educators to give it a try.
We’ve covered Words of the Wiser, Again and Again, Memory Moments, and Aha Moments. We’ve only got two signposts left. So today we’re going to chat about Contrast & Contradictions.
The Contrast & Contradiction signpost asks the reader to notice times when a character does something that doesn’t line up with their previous actions or even when a character goes against the social norms of the world they live in. The reader is going to ask why is the character acting like this or saying this?
As an author, this is one of my absolutely favorite elements to incorporate into my writing because it can really help to highlight the internal conflict a character has. I love writing a character who is thinking one way, but then says or does the exact opposite. It makes the reader ask why is the character doing that?
Because there has to be a reason, whether they’re aware or unaware of what it is. Maybe the character is acting against their thoughts or beliefs to protect themselves or another. Or maybe they don’t even realize what they’re doing because they’ve been gaslit for so long they think they’re doing it for the right reasons. Which can lead to them having an Aha Moment at some point.
Now that we’ve chatted about five of the six signposts, it’s important to realize that all of these interact and influence each other. Using all of them, layering them together, and finding how they link up is important to do. As a writer you’re going to want to use all of them in your manuscript. Depending on what genre and age range you’re writing in, you might choose to emphasize one more than another, but a good story is going to have all these elements intertwined.
So back to the Contrast & Contradiction signpost. You can also use this to show that your character is going against the social norms of the world they live in. In the Hunger Games, you see Katniss and the other tributes doing this a lot. And it really emphasized the fact that they were in a dystopian world and that they didn’t agree with what was happening around them.
There are a lot of ways to play with this in your manuscript, so be creative and don’t hold back, really dig into the ways you can highlight those contrasts and contradictions both internally and externally for your character.
As I’ve said the before the reading signposts are from the book Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. I highly recommend reading it because it gives some excellent insight into the importance of these elements in storytelling and how they build off of the reader’s prior knowledge and expectations.
As always, your mileage may vary! Tell me about your favorite ways to incorporate Contrast and contradiction in your own writing!
Consisting of five sections, this course will include strategies for revising characters, plot, pacing, and worlding building. It also includes resources for copyediting and for gaining insight into your manuscripts theme and purpose
