The Art of Writing with Nuance
Why Subtlety Matters in Storytelling.
In a world where loud, high-concept stories often dominate the conversation, nuance in writing can feel like a lost art. Yet, the most compelling narratives—the ones that linger in our minds long after the credits roll or the final page turns—are often those that embrace complexity, subtext, and layered meaning. Chris Whitaker’s new novel All the Colors of the Dark is a masterclass in nuance.
So, what does it mean to write with nuance, and why does it matter?
Nuance Respects the Intelligence of the Audience
Great storytelling doesn’t spoon-feed. It invites the audience to think, interpret, and engage on a deeper level. When writers allow room for ambiguity and subtlety, they create space for the viewer or reader to bring their own perspective into the experience.
Take a show like The Sopranos. Its infamous ending remains one of the most debated moments in television history—not because it lacked resolution, but because it trusted the audience to draw their own conclusions. Nuanced storytelling respects that audiences are capable of handling complexity.
Characters with Depth Feel More Real
Flat, one-dimensional characters rarely resonate. Real people contain contradictions—heroes have flaws (Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life on the Street is one of the best.), and villains have motivations beyond “just being evil.” Think Eddie Redmayne’s character in The Day of the Jackal, Villanelle in Killing Eve, Joe Goldberg in You, Stringer Bell in The Wire. These are complex characters with complex motivations. They make you feel. Love them or hate them, they’re memorable.
Look at Breaking Bad’s Walter White. His transformation isn’t just a straight descent into villainy; it’s a slow, intricate unraveling filled with justifications, moral dilemmas, and choices that force the audience to question their own perceptions. Nuance makes characters feel human.
Subtext is More Powerful Than Exposition
Nuanced writing embraces the idea that what’s left unsaid can be just as important as what’s spoken. Subtext—the underlying meaning beneath dialogue or action—adds richness and layers to a story.
Consider Lost in Translation. The film’s emotional core isn’t delivered through dramatic monologues but through glances, silences, and unfinished sentences. The audience feels the characters’ connection without needing it explicitly explained. Think about how the meaning changes every time Westley utters “As you wish,” in The Princess Bride.
Moral Ambiguity Creates More Engaging Stories
Stories that explore moral gray areas tend to be more compelling because they mirror real life. Rather than presenting a clear-cut good vs. evil dichotomy, nuanced writing acknowledges that people, situations, and choices exist on a spectrum.
Game of Thrones (at its best) thrived on this. Characters like Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, and even Cersei were layered in ways that made them impossible to box into simple categories. Their actions were shaped by circumstance, history, and personal struggle.
The Emmy Award winning China Beach explored morality through the lens of the Vietnam War while Tom Fontana’s HBO prison series Oz, was an exploration of the moral ambiguity of criminality. It could have been easy to paint these worlds in black and white. The enemy is evil and deserves to die. Criminals are without conscience. But reality is not that simplistic or reductive and characters shouldn’t be either. It was the nuance with which these two series painted their characters that made them heartbreaking and human.
The Power of Perspective
Nuanced storytelling understands that truth is often subjective. Different characters see the same event through different lenses, and the way a story is framed can shift the audience’s perception.
Perpetually referenced in film and TV pitches, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon is a masterclass in this, presenting multiple, conflicting accounts of the same event. Similarly, Showtime’s The Affair employs a dual narrative, telling its story from different perspectives, highlighting how each person remembers and interprets the same events differently. The result? Stories that forc
e the audience to grapple with the nature of truth and perception itself.
Nuance is what separates good writing from great writing. It’s what makes stories linger in the mind, inviting discussion, interpretation, and debate. The best narratives don’t just tell us what to think—they make us feel, question, and reflect.
In a world where instant gratification is king, nuanced storytelling asks us to engage on a deeper level. And in doing so, it ensures that stories stand the test of time.