Hiding Storytelling Mechanics

Nick Bilton believes in the power of invisible storytelling mechanics, where the research and effort behind a story should be hidden from the audience, creating a seamless experience similar to well-designed technology products.

• Great storytelling should hide its mechanics:

  • "One of the beauties of great products is when you don't know how it works... I think the same is true for storytelling"
  • Compares his approach to Steve Jobs' philosophy that "you should never know that the technology exists and how it happens"
  • "When you're reading I'm not gonna tell you... who gives a shit like just tell me the story"

• Extensive research should remain invisible:

  • Spent weeks with sources (like Julia Ross's ex-girlfriend) gathering intimate details
  • References great novelists who don't reveal their research: "a lot of the greatest novels the amount of research that people like Gabriela Garcia Marquez put into a hundred years of solitude... they're not telling you all this they're just telling you a story"

• Product obsession parallel:

  • Compares his meticulous approach to Jobs' obsession with designing the inside of computer casings that no one would see
  • Acknowledges it's "a weird kind of product obsession" but takes pride in the invisible craft

• Writing philosophy:

  • Focuses on creating a magical, seamless experience where the mechanics disappear
  • Wants readers to be immersed in the narrative without being distracted by how the information was obtained
  • Aims to marry "that style of a novel with a narrative nonfiction story"