Don't connect all the dots. Give the audience a role in filling in what's happening. That is, give them all the dots they need, but don't connect all the dots for them.
The reason this works is that a mind actively completing a pattern engages more deeply than one simply receiving a finished picture. When you connect every dot, the audience becomes a spectator to your thinking. When you leave the last connection open, they become a participant in it, and participation creates ownership over the idea. Say you're writing a puzzle recap: instead of stating "the winning move worked because it forced a trade," show the position before and after and let the reader spot the forced trade themselves. The caution is that withheld dots must still be findable ones. If the gap requires information you never gave, or knowledge only a narrow slice of your audience has, you've created confusion rather than insight, and people quietly disengage rather than lean in.
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