Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27708312-20170202163909/@comment-31166511-20170304221335

It didn't particullarly stand out among everything else Mabel said.

Understand, I was not enjoying reading about Mabel talking about how terrible she was, so the subtleties of the different ways that she deserves to have bad things happen to her were pretty lost on me.

If there had been some sort of build up, it might have not gotten lost in the shuffle. I really wish Mabel had way earlier, if not opened up to Dipper, at least gave off indications of her emotional state for Dipper and the reader to pick up on.

Dropping hint about a character's state of mind without spelling it out is an easy way to increase dramatic tension without spilling the beans right away.

It's always a challenge as a writter, trying to give the audience clues. You can't be too subtle, yet you don't want to hit the reader over over the head and be preachy.

Things that are often the critical point to the author will be totally lost on 50% of the readers. But then the other 50% will say they predicted it way ahead of time. That 50/50 balance is really the best you can hope for with a diverse audience.

I guess I'm just the 50% that didn't get it.