The fiction writer in me likes gaps in stories because I can jump into that gap and try to suggest something.
Marlon JamesRead
If your depiction of loss doesn't make the reader feel loss, then you didn't depict it right.
Interpretation
Effective storytelling should evoke genuine emotions in the reader.
Marlon James emphasizes the importance of creating an authentic emotional experience in literature. If an author's portrayal of loss fails to resonate with readers, it suggests that the depiction lacks depth or authenticity, highlighting the critical role of emotional engagement in storytelling.
In practice
This quote can be used in a workshop about creative writing techniques.
The fiction writer in me likes gaps in stories because I can jump into that gap and try to suggest something.
I'm not a writer on a mission, and I'm very suspicious of writers on missions, but I'm also not living a false life.
I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling.
Not every gay person recites poetry or has read Keats. You can get readers through anything if the characters are complicated. You can't dismiss Josey Wales' quite liberal worldview.
Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.
He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.
I've always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks - you learn craft, you learn structure, all that - as you go.
What use having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?
It's hard in America as a writer of color, an actor of color, not to get caught up in race and culture. But you're also supposed to be able to write characters and scenes in a way where it's just a matter of fact, a component.
So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
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