Beware of the Thesis Statement.

Remember writing essays in high school? Our teachers taught us to start a paragraph with a one-sentence summary of the arguments. This is called a thesis statement.

In this article:

• Why thesis statements have no place in fiction.

School gave you bad habits.

After years of school, the thesis statement became second nature for many of us. Now we use them for everything.

If you’re sending an angry text to a friend, you might start the text with “I didn’t like how you made me feel.” If you’re asking for time off from your boss, you might begin the email with “I’m writing to ask for PTO.”

You might even be tempted to use thesis statements in fiction.

Unfortunately, thesis statements make weak prose. By summarizing the scene, you’re spoiling the action.

The point of an essay is to argue for a position. The point of fiction is to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Narrative writing needs rich visual details, not summaries of the action. When you summarize a scene, you’re taking away the reader’s joy of understanding.

Stop spoiling the fun.

Here’s a scene that begins with a thesis statement:

Billy had stage fright. He clutched the guitar tightly as he made his way to the stage. A thousand eyes judged him. He gulped and sat.

The sentence “Billy had stage fright.” kills the suspense of the scene, no matter how intense you make the rest of it. Reading this first sentence is comparable to drinking a warm, flat coke on a hot summer day.

You can literally just cut the thesis statement to make the scene stronger:

Billy clutched the guitar tightly as he made his way to the stage. A thousand eyes judged him. He gulped and sat.

If we tell the reader what to conclude at the beginning of a scene, she gets bored and starts skimming. To keep your writing interesting, let the reader come to her own conclusions. You can help the reader feel Billy’s stage fright by using vivid descriptions. For example:

The stage lights were too hot. Too bright. The floor squeaked the wrong way and Billy paused to see if anyone else had heard it. His stomach was grumbling. Maybe it was the cheeseburger he ate this morning. Maybe it was the milk. He gripped his guitar with both hands — his sweat coating the dark brown varnish — and took his seat behind the microphone.

Today’s writing tip: Beware of thesis statements. Never summarize a scene. If you feel the need to summarize or explain, check if your prose is vivid enough.

Today’s writing exercise: Re-write the following passage. There is more than one thesis statement. You can rewrite this in your own style, if you wish.

“Anne hated work. She sat at her desk and banged her head against the keyboard, muttering the words “I’m done” over and over again. On these late nights, she often felt the cubicle walls closing in, the hum of the old fluorescent lights and the gray tackboard walls a constant reminder of her captivity. The spark that once fueled her passion for work had vanished.”

P.S. Feel free to reply to this email with your improved passage and your initials. I’ll pick a response to feature in the next email.