Narrative Implication

When writing a narrative, it's impossible to fit everything.

See, no story is ever really complete.

Inevitably there are gaps. Jumps in time, perspectives missed, conclusions left unresolved.

And so, in addition to expressing what is part of a story, equally within the writer's role is the necessity to capture what isn't apart of the story. Somehow, within the limit of length they have imposed on themselves, they must convey their narrative.

It is here that writers must turn to implication.

Narrative implication is any story left untold. Such implication works to extend a story far beyond the core narrative written on the pages or shown on the screen. Through this mechanism, the work is widened far beyond the scope of what the writer could hope to achieve through explicit exploration.

In each instance, such widening occurs through the three elements which make up a narrative; plot, character and world.

Though implication never occurs exclusively in terms of one element - because they all work together in tandem, plot, character and world are difficult to extricate individually - the underlying focus almost always lies with just one of the them.

Any extension to any of these elements works to not only extend the element itself, but to extend the entire narrative as a whole.

Let me start with character. Implied characterisation is probably the easiest to identify; it's most common form is the backstory.

Backstory is almost taken for granted as an element of narrative, both for protagonists and antagonists alike. Batman had his parents killed. Darth Vader was manipulated into becoming a Sith Lord. Jason Bourne was enlisted as a black ops CIA assassin. The list goes on. Backstory works to explain why characters are the way they are.

In most cases, backstory is initially hinted at and referenced to, and as the story progresses, past events and experiences may come to light, potentially reframing characters and their relationships. Though backstory will be progressively fleshed out from the initial implication, the narrative which it contains is never fully expressed. At some level, backstory is always carried by implication.

This then ties into plot. Implied plot again comes in a few common guises, the main ones being prologues, side quests and epilogues.

Prologues are typically linked directly to backstory, which together make up what can be identified as the understory.

The understory is what the primary narrative is build upon. In the Harry Potter series it was the death of Harry's parents. In Lord of the Rings it was Sauron's conquest. In The Stormlight Archive it was Galvinar's death. From each of these underlying narratives, the primary narrative is then layered and reliant on. Additionally, because it is implied, there is always some level of mystery and hidden detail which adds to the primary narrative as it is slowly teased out.

Epilogue implies that even though a narrative may have concluded, there is still more to the story. This equally could be blissful domestic ignorance, or continued adventure; either way, there will always be more to the story. The purpose of epilogue is to tie up these possibilities into a neat enough bow that it provides just enough closure to the audience.

In terms of extending world, the specific implied narrative works through references; allusions to features external to the core narrative but internal to its world. For instance, by directly referencing other plots or characters within that world, the integrity of the world (and therefore the narrative) is reinforced.

As a basic example, on multiple instances in the Sherlock Holmes canon Sherlock makes reference to other cases of his which haven't reached the public eye.

"Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson," said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. "It was a ship associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."

By making such a reference, the world of Sherlock Holmes is widened, through which the integrity of the specific narrative at hand is also strengthened.

Beyond this, you can see how established universes thrive on such references. In literature, you only need to look to Sanderson's Cosmere, Pratchett's Discworld or Tolkien's Middle Earth. In cinema, you only need to look to the MCU, the DCU or the Star Wars universe¹Forgeting for a moment how deplorably this cinematic mega-IP has degraded, and instead just observing the technical impact of narrative implication. Within any of these universes, if you take a single installment, it is make so much richer through its cameos and references and crossovers and intersections²With the expansion of mega IP, what was implied within one narrative is now increasingly given its own story. For example, from the many implied narratives within the original Star Wars trilogy, subsequent works include a prequel trilogy describing the backstory of Darth Vader and the Empire, a stand alone movie on how the rebels obtained the Death Star plans as well as a series on how Obi-Wan Kenobi came to have Luke Skywalker in his care.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about franchises or series' in general; in most cases each installment is a direct continuation of a single ongoing narrative. Instead, the kind of narrative implication I'm drawing from is very much lateral to the core narrative. In such instances, it's the lateral nature of these connections which elevates the overall world.

One of the best examples of implied narrative across all three elements is in the movie Tenet.

From the very first sequence we are given our protagonist's backstory. We learn he is a covert operative, and in his latest operation in Kyiv he is captured and kills himself before he can be tortured. We don't know how long he has been an operative, nor do we know the purpose or details of his latest assignment. In both cases a narrative is undoubtably there, it's just implied. But already we know far more about the character than we do the plot or the world.

As the narrative continues and the world (of temporal inversion) and plot (of saving the world) are introduced, along the way we are presented with multiple internal references to events within this world; implied narrative is thrown left, right and center. We are left fully in the dark on how humanity first found evidence of temporal inversion, let along how this clandestine organisation came about, yet the narrative is undoubtably there. We are at least given the bones of a narrative concerning how temporal inversion first came about in the future, not to mention the antagonist's backstory and in the context of the plot, the plutonium he's already collected.

Finally, just before the conclusion, we are presented with an absolute ripper of a epilogue, of further missions and adventures lasting a lifetime, both in the past and future.

The Protagonist: Hey, you never did tell me who recruited you, Neil! Neil: Haven’t you guessed by now? You did! Only not when you thought. You have a future in the past. Years ago for me, years from now for you. The Protagonist: You’ve known me for years? Neil: For me, I think this is the end of a beautiful friendship. The Protagonist: But for me it’s just the beginning! Neil: We get up to some stuff. You’re gonna love it, you’ll see. This whole operation is a temporal pincer!

In each and every example of implied narrative there is a story implied but ultimately left untold, existing only in the imagination of the author and the audience.

Narrative implication works to resolve loose ends, address gaps in the story and create closure in open-ended situations.

But more than this, by implying other narratives, the story itself enlargens to something far bigger, far more immersive.

Narrative implication is a tool designed not only to extend plot, character and world, but to enrichen an entire narrative.

Ultimately, though the idea is given to us by the writer, the actual exposition of what the implied narrative could be is competely up to the audience.

In the end there is always more to the story.

It's up to us to fill it in.

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