Writing
This post is mostly for Miles, but anyone else that can take something from it.
I recently read Fahrenheit 451 and at the end of the book there was an interview recording with the author. Obviously the guy is a good writer, coming up with such an important book. I found what he said about writing very enlightening.
But first, the book is about a world where no books are allowed. Firemen go to people’s houses and burn the houses down with the books inside. And one firemen has a change in heart after one lady allows herself to be burned with her books. Then it turns into a “Big Brothers VS Him” type situation. Interesting book. Most of my readers shouldn’t read it.
Anyways, the power of description is important in writing. For example, lets say you’re in your room and you hear a loud bang in the kitchen. You write, “I was in my room playing where’s my hand, home edition, and I heard a loud noise from the kitchen.” Ok, that’s decent, but you could take the same situation and really make it come alive with your description of sound. “I heard an explosion of sound” “…and then what sounded like a herd of elephants running through a forest” and it goes on. Makes the reader really think about what it sounded like. I read “a loud noise” and I would associate that with a specific sound, maybe pans being thrown to the ground, since it’s a kitchen. Maybe Chet would think it’d sound like someone crashed through the wall, David would think something different, and so on. If you can better describe the sound you can really make the story accurately come to life.
Same with smell or any of the 5 senses. In the interview they asked him about his detail in writing about the smell of the burning houses. He said when he decided he wanted to be a writer he went to the library and read a book about each of the five senses. Once he had a good understanding on the senses he got over that hurdle and was able to really create that image in the readers minds.
What are your thoughts of this post? Honestly. Should I stick to “what’s going on in my life” or try blogging about things I have no business writing about, or what?
7 comments March 8th, 2007