Friday, October 23, 2009

Writing for the Reader

"Writers write the text; readers write the story."

So says my writing professor, Laurie Thomas; and; if you think about it, it's really true. Whatever you write in your novel, short story, play, poem, etc. must be read and interpreted by the reader.

You may write about the smell of a fire in a neighbor's fireplace, which conjures up happy memories of toasting marshmallows at your favorite campsite.  But the reader who has lost her home in a fire will be reminded of the terror and panic she felt as she fled the house in the middle of the night.

It's important to keep that in mind as we create a world in which the reader interprets our words to conjure up images of her own.