Laziness, Literary Technique, and Loyalty: the Third Reason for Confusion in Novels

In my recent post on why some novels are confusing to readers (even though the writer has previously proved that he knows how to write clearly), I implied laziness (in editing and revision) and cited literary technique (an intentional use of confusion to induce trance in the reader).

A third reason for confusion is that the novel’s “voice” (co-writer alternate personalities, which the writer hears in his head) may have had a story that would be confusing to outsiders (readers), but they wanted the story to be told truthfully (according to the way they saw it).

And the writing personality felt that he ought to publish the voice’s version, out of loyalty to the creative people in his organization (especially since they hadn’t failed him in the past, and he didn’t know what he would do without them).

In short, the reasons for a confusing novel are one or more of the following: laziness, literary technique, and loyalty.