Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible.

Like Jannert pointed out so well, you should be careful with information. It's all about finding the right balance, not telling everything right away, but also not keeping the reader in the dark for too long. Ultimately, the writer will have to reveal vital information in accordance with demands of the plot.
One of the best way is to reveal only relevant information through the eyes of the characters, or if that's not possible, make it relevant to the character's story, whether directly or indirectly.

If your story is set in an imaginary world and it starts with a character alone in the woods, you should not go describing the political landscape, but only what's relevant to your character at that moment. It's maybe a crude example, but you get the idea.
Writers with less experience are more keen to show off their skill by over describing, especially if it's about worldbuilding.

The reader should only discern the larger picture in a way that leaves him space to draw conclusions on his own.

For me, there is no joy in reading a work where the writer is omnipresent and everything is revealed. I like to read works that make me think.

 

Exactly this.

 

Um, but if humans knew about this they wouldn't stab the alien in the chest to begin with. If humans do not know this, then why would the author tell you this? Usually if it is humans vs alien it would be from the general perspective of the human beings.

 

In a situation where 'the human villain stabs the alien protag', I think we can assume that it's from the perspective of the alien. So the human character wouldn't know, but withholding information from the human reader just for a big reveal moment is, imo, cheap. That's the point I was making about manufactured tension.

 

I'm a Leo Kottke fan as well. In some respects—minus the guitar—he's got a lot in common with Garrison Keillor. Keillor is a master storyteller, who has wonderful control over the 'circular story,' where the story seems to meander (in an interesting way) until you've kind of forgotten how it started. Then, bingo. It all comes together. I love circular stories!

 

Good point.

 

Unless at the beginning of the story you made reference to the human villian skipping alien anatomy class because he didn't want to learn about them, he just wanted to kill them, then you get some foreshadowing and hubris in there as well. More information at the start that if you pick up on can help you finish the story if the last page gets eaten by rats.

 

In my world this means that the reader could come up with one ending of the story, probably not the ending that the story has in "real life".

Say, you have this story, it's 7 pages (the author has numbered the pages 1(7) ,2(7), 3(7) ...)

The reader finds only the first 4 pages, but can even with only that think of an ending to the story.

The reader finds page 5, and can now also think of an ending but it's different than the one where the reader had only 4 pages.

The reader finds page 6, same thing happens

The reader finds the last page, "Wow, of course Kurt, why didn't I see that."

*

As readers we are of course allowed to interpret advice in our own way.
But this way helps me thinking about writing a short story.

The story is like a tourist guide that takes you through this beautiful old town.
You will see houses, narrow streets, beautiful bridges a fantastic park and so on.
The guide takes you on detours, illogical paths, strange stairs but you trust him, you will not get lost and you will reach a destination.

 

Savoury more like. Ba-dum tss...

'Rules' are so burdensome. Conventions, suggestions, ideas; if they work, use them.

 

I agree completely. Use the eyes of your protagonist to tell the story.