Observation

“Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature” Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

What is the thing that makes a reader wish to read your story?  There are lots of answers to this question.  The reader is interested in your plot. The reader empathizes with your characters.  The reader feels bound to keep up at book group. (well – it’s true!)

All of these reasons have merit, for sure, but to me, the thing that keeps me savoring a book is the way the writer brings out the sensory elements in a scene, plays with them, and pulls me into that experience, so that I feel I am there.

When I was an under-grad in English Lit., a professor was encouraging me to read Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past.” It’s not a book for the faint of heart, for to sum it up – it’s a long and windy tale that is conjured up in the mind of the narrator as he recalls the flavor of a bit of cake.  The writing is exquisite, and very erudite. What I recall most from my time with Proust was his description of a girl with  “…eyes like the tides…” WOW! Not – “She had blue eyes”, or “She had eyes that locked on you and pulled you in.” He picked a metaphor that gave the girl’s eyes an unexpected power and magnetism that is memorable – and did it with four little words.

I am blown away when an author can give me a description of a place, person, thing or idea that is so perceptive and so original it makes me stop and relish the image they have created.

“All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread." - Toni Morrison, “Beloved”.  What an image! I have no idea what this person looked like but I can see and smell that bread, and feel its texture.

Or this:

“He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage." Stephen Crane, “The Red Badge of Courage.”  To describe a war wound as a red badge of courage is brilliant. It is both succinct and visceral. The best fiction is peppered with eye-opening, illuminating metaphors and descriptions such as these. 

The art of the writer is to give us images that surprise us, and excite us. Inspiration for such textural feats is all about us. An artist is always an observer.  A writer is an artist who works in the medium of words, and words can paint pictures as vivid as any Van Gogh.

How often have you seen tree blowing in a storm, or watched a fire crackle, and an amazing description leapt to your mind. You knew you wanted to incorporate it into your writing. It’s often that moment of inspiration that can turn a common description into something amazing.  So, what did you do about it? I used to make a firm commitment to myself to “remember it”.  That never works, alas. What does work, is to keep a small notebook at hand and jot such gems down as you are thinking of them.  Later – take those notes and create a marvelous picture for your reader to delight in. It’s what writing is all about.

Laurie