Writing Techniques: Use and Abuse of “Lampshading”

As storytellers, we usually want to keep readers immersed in our story. However, we’ve probably all written lines that we worry will break readers’ suspension of disbelief, such as with story events that might feel too cliché, coincidental, or incongruent. Obviously, we can try to fix the issue by changing those elements, but what if they’re necessary for the story we want to tell?

In that case, we might simply hope that the strength of our surrounding lines or story flow will carry readers past that point without pulling them out of the narrative. But there’s another option that may help overcome a reader’s awareness: the writing technique of “lampshading.” Let’s explore what the lampshade technique is and how we can use it (and not abuse it) in our stories.

What Is the “Lampshade” Technique

Believe it or not, the lampshade/lantern/lampshade-hanging technique is just this: Purposely call attention to a cliché, illogical, or contrived element, often in characters’ dialogue. By calling attention to something that threatens a readers’ suspension of disbelief, we’re essentially telling readers, “Yep, the story world thinks these elements are odd too. Just roll with it.”

The TV Tropes site includes many examples, which point out how this technique isn’t new:

Sir Toby Belch: Is’t possible?
Fabian: If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.

— Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

In addition to simply using self-awareness to point out issues, lampshading can sometimes also take the opportunity to answer or justify how the situation makes sense. For example, to defuse readers’ skepticism or criticism of an event, a character might share further information after the fact, such as explaining unknown motivations:

Lampshade: “Yeah, I’m glad we won, but why did Klaus suddenly decide to help us?” Susan threw up her hands. “That makes no sense. He never wanted our team to win.”
Justification: Paula pointed down the field to the opposing team. “See that girl? Cynthia broke up with him last night—ugly scene from what I heard. Maybe he wanted her team to lose more than he didn’t want us to win.”

Depending on circumstances, lampshading can create moments that come off as winking, hilarious, clever (or too-clever-for-its-own-good), meta, lazy, handwaving away weak writing, etc. So we need to understand when lampshading will help or hurt our writing and story.

Lampshading Might Hurt Our Story When…

Lampshading done well helps keep readers immersed in our story, but lampshading done poorly risks pulling readers out of our story even more than if we had just left our writing alone.

Situations where lampshading can hurt our story or writing include:

• Our story’s style is serious or sincere, so even mild or well-done lampshading risks a tonal change of being too-clever, meta, or jokey.
• Our story’s narrative is strong and/or readers of our genre won’t question the plot tropes/clichés, so lampshading risks an impression of “apologizing” for lines or elements that readers may not even notice if we don’t point them out.
• The questionable elements are part of a strong emotional moment in our story, so lampshading risks undercutting—or at least interrupting—the emotions we wanted to evoke (such as in the game-winning example above).
• Our story naturally keeps readers at a distance—less engaged or immersed—so any lampshading, especially meta, fourth-wall-breaking, or too-clever-by-half moments (unless, of course, that’s the kind of story we’re trying to tell), risks preventing readers from taking anything seriously (e.g., if our characters don’t seem fully invested and care about the story’s events, readers might not care either).
• The questionable elements are part of a major or important moment in our story, so lampshading, with its “don’t worry about it” and “just roll with it” attitude, risks giving readers the impression that the moment isn’t important.
• There’s no story at all without the questionable elements, so lampshading that emphasizes the issue can make the entire story feel weak or “fake.”
• Our characters’ reactions are believable within the story world, so lampshading risks an impression that we aren’t confident in our writing, worldbuilding, or characters.

Most importantly, as alluded to in that last bullet point, we don’t want to lampshade something simply because we’re not confident in our writing. Once per story, we might need to move the plot along with a contrived situation that we’re not entirely happy about, and maybe that event could use a lampshade, just to keep things moving. But lampshading due to self-consciousness can feel defensive, like we’re trying to avoid any-and-all criticism or essentially apologizing for our work. Instead, we should fix the problem so we can feel at least somewhat confident in our writing.

How to Properly Use Lampshading

Given all the above risks, we might wonder why we’d ever use the lampshading technique. However, done well, the technique can create a “we’re all in this together” bond with readers. In fact, lampshading can deepen readers’ immersion, preventing readers’ natural disbelief or skepticism about events.

So what are some ways to ensure we’re using the lampshade technique well? We can…

• Use the right level of lampshading (minor vs. major, explicit vs. subtle, frequency, etc.), matching the story and its needs.
• Maintain the narrative flow of the story through the lampshading (unless we’re not trying to be subtle with our use), as the more interruptive the lampshade is, the more noticeable it is.
• Keep any comments or reactions true to the character and/or believable for character and story world.
• Make characters react the way readers would react to the incongruent events, which can make our characters more relatable.
• Ensure the events surrounding the lampshading are still earned by the story, rather than using the lampshading to kick off a lazy-writing sequence of events.
• Anticipate readers’ thoughts of alternate plot directions, such as “why don’t they try XYZ”, and lampshade why that wouldn’t work to keep readers on the intended plot path.
• Maintain the “fourth wall” between the character’s lampshading commentary and the reader, such as by having the character comment about a character in a movie they’re watching (e.g., the boy and grandfather framing device of The Princess Bride).
• Ensure the lampshaded events add value for the reader, as they’ll be less interruptive if readers want to accept the events and move on from the issue.
• Keep the story’s style/tone and the target audience in mind with regards to frequency and placement of the technique, as even in stories where a winking, self-referential type of joke fits the tone, it’s possible to overdo, undercut important or emotional moments, or limit the appeal of the humor style (e.g., the lazy-writing complaints about recent Marvel movies).

Final Thoughts about Lampshading

The lampshade technique shouldn’t be used as a general Get-Out-Of-A-Plot-Hole-or-Lazy-Writing Card. Hanging a lampshade to flippantly dismiss real problems in a story doesn’t make them go away.

But when done well, lampshading can help us keep readers engaged with our story:

• At its least, readers see the lampshade as a fun wink rather than bad writing that causes them to disengage from the story.
• At its best, we can use it with a plot event that feels like a plot hole to readers—but that we know will have a strong, perfectly logical explanation later—to let readers know this “hole” is part of the plan and they should continue trusting us and our storytelling. It hints to readers that they’re still missing a puzzle piece to understanding the story so just enjoy the journey.

In short, lampshading done well is about keeping our readers’ trust, adding value that proves our story is worthy of their suspended disbelief. *smile*

Want to learn more about subtle vs. explicit lampshading or see examples? Visit my companion post!

Have you heard of the lampshade technique before? Did you know how to use it properly, or were you worried about the risks? Do you have any questions about the technique or how to use (and not abuse) lampshading?