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This is a habit I have with my stories, and I think it's a bad practice. The story I'm writing isn't of the suspense genre, it's a mix of fantasy and realistic fiction, but a bit of "I wonder what/who/how would that be?", and showing the answers later on is never a bad thing (if well implemented).
I think I'm a plotter, and maybe a bit of a pantser too. I write the core of the story, almost always already knowing the ending, and then I write excerpts describing every idea I have as soon as they come to my mind. I only start writing the story at full when I've established enough ideas, so I can let the events happen and the characters act for themselves.
However, in my case, this process leaves all details exposed, most of the time right at the beginning (but not in an info-dump). Little to no important information remains to reveal later. In my opinion, a story with no surprises and no suspense and no mystery, that just reveals everything the reader wants to know right away, is just plain boring.
But I also don't know if it's just the way I structure it, or if it's simply just bad writing. Should I cover what is uncovered? Should I leave the revelation of some information to later chapters? Should I trick the characters?
(2)More posts by @Vandalay250
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Should I cover what is uncovered?
If your story requires some events or circumstances not to be disclosed until the narrative reaches a certain point, then yes, you should withhold that information at the beginning and reveal it when it is time. The genre does not matter, be it a murder mystery, romance, or a YA coming of age story.
Think of the reveal of a certain bit of information as you think of any other event in your story (because it is, just as well as someone getting ill, leaving the town, or getting married), and plot accordingly, that is all there is to it.
The main problem with "revealing too much" is info-dumps. Boring the reader early on. If you can reveal a lot without boring the reader, that's great!
The opposite of what you do - dribbling bits of exposition and making the reader tear down the image they built and rebuild it with the new info repeatedly - is a far worse problem.
If you feel the rest of the story is getting dry, just migrate some pieces into later sections in the editing phase. It's quite easy when you have all the pieces already laid out, to find where something would fit better - say, transformed from "tell" into "show" as we encounter it live in the story, or your cabbagehead has the good opportunity to ask his questions. Regardless - if you indeed, can provide all the exposition in the beginning of the book without ever boring the reader, I can only congratulate the talent.
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