Support for Indie Authors discussion

I'm a SFF writer. One of the hallmarks of these genres is using metaphors in a fictional world to illustrate an issue with the real one. I prefer my metaphors to come as "aha" moments near the end. The problem is: How subtle should I be with the message leading up to that moment?

I've tried to be coy and have had beta readers feel cheated at the end with the reveal. I've also laid it on thick and had the same readers profess to seeing it coming (which changes the reading experience). Finding that sweet spot is a delicate process.

Do any of you work with slow reveals? What methods do you find most useful for revealing ideas exactly when you want the reader to discover them?

A very good question, I look forward to seeing some answers!

If you're still in beta, then good for you. If you can spare the time, write a few different versions, have each of them beta'd, and observe the reactions. Try to ask the betas what is their usual taste (genre-wise) in case that'd affect it.
Then, if you have a bunch of opinions on each version, you should be able to make a better guess.
Just keep in mind that you'll never please everyone. And there will be always people who miss some hint because it doesn't seem important enough at the moment.

Even then, it can still be tricky - there were passages a beta suggested I remove because they felt out of place for them, while they were a hint for something they did not know yet (or won't know for a while because it's for a sequel). There were things I did not plan to be a hint but turned out as one - and things I wanted to be a hint only to scrap that idea and remove them later even though the hint worked because the larger idea did not work the way I hoped to.

I take the natural approach (I guess that's what you'd call it), and let the inciting incident and the location drive what is happening. The incident, the person, or persons, and how they react. I think trying to get too clever is, well, just trying to get too clever.

Ray Bradbury said 'find the metaphor,' however making that the aim is just heavy handed.

Also, if something is too representational it feels construed and not natural--and that interrupts the connection to the story.

Have you played Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations? I'd be hard-pressed to find a more brilliant example of this.
"She is not the murderer!!! She can't be the murderer!!!" Oh my God, the reveal. The reveal! (If you haven't, you gotta play the whole game for the awesome twist).
Another one: Suikoden Tierkreis (you like war stuff so I think you'll enjoy this one). Very, very complex story, and you're given one crumb at the time.

As for my writing, I played with the reveal a lot, the main one in the first half of my first book being "What is the MC?"

She first alerts the reader that she will narrate the story in logical terms, as if she was a normal girl, since you usually don't believe the supernatural exists.
Soon in the book, another of her "kind" recruits her to fight a demon. It is obvious her "kind" detests them.
Two days later, you get to see her true form has black feathery wings and feeds off the blood of humans. She also enjoys punishing evil humans. Soon you know it's her only source of nourishment--wait, she can also have ambrosia.
A little later, to save the hero, she is forced to enter his dreams and reveal her true nature.

See what I mean? With each little reveal, you're closer to the truth, yet new questions show up.

I agree with M.L., it has to be natural. It also needs to be at a point where the hidden can no longer remain that way.

Also, I slid related information in the first book that nobody will remember when the big reveal appears in the fifth. "I don't really remember my own death..." (Hmm... why not? You remember everything else) and "You're a being that transcends humans" (said to an angel, so you think 'Okay'... but what if it really was not an angel?)

Hope I helped.

Oh, and about the beta readers...
A certain someone I know claims to always know the killer in Agatha Christie's murder mysteries... This person is NOT the brightest crayon in the box, and MUCH smarter people than her only get half of them.
So... you know. Kinda like the people who prophesied something was going to happen AFTER it happened?

I can totally relate with what you said. Some readers need to be hit with a brick in order to understand something. But you need to be you.

I think I don't understand the question. :) Slow reveals that then turn around, as in the unreliable narrator and the author is dropping hints along the way? I don't equate slow reveals with metaphors.

I agree with M.L. Plot reveals and metaphors are not the same thing. I'm not sure from your question which you are asking about. Plot reveals are generally sprinkled throughout to give the reader clues. Metaphors can be individual comparisons or the overall message (but in that case should be consistent throughout the story).

With my novel, in the early drafts, I was very heavy-handed with the overall metaphor. I didn't want the reader to 'not get it' to the point where one of my beta readers complained about having headaches from my hammering him over and over with "The Message." I took that to heart and toned it down.

Yeah, I'm a bit unclear on the OP as well. Are we actually talking metaphor, or allegory?

I mean, metaphor in literature is usually phrases like "You're such a peach!" or "He's so rich he's drowning in money." Or, like these famous lines from Shakespeare (whoever he was):

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,

Allegory is more like Dante's Divine Comedy where he is on a pilgrimage to understand himself ... but is also representative of all humans trying to find purpose in life.

Or, like what Tolkien's LotR has been accused of (and which the man himself always emphatically and convincingly denied): that it was an allegory of the First World War.

Micah wrote: "Yeah, I'm a bit unclear on the OP as well. Are we actually talking metaphor, or allegory?

I mean, metaphor in literature is usually phrases like "You're such a peach!" or "He's so rich he's drowni..."

An allegory would be like Everyman going on a journey and meeting Grace, Hope, and Love. Of course, one of the best allegories ever was Animal Farm.

I think he is asking about two different things. One the metaphor, another the reveal. Or so I understood.
I replied about the reveal because in what I write (romance) there's no need for metaphors.