Reading Response on Imaginative Writing

After reading Burroway’s chapter on flat writing and how not to do it, I realized that I am profoundly guilty of writing in generalizations and judgements. (Tragically, I am probably going to do it in this essay.) Why do I do this? I think that I have spent most of my life thinking grand thoughts and making even grander conclusions (let's blame it on Socrates and Plato), and perhaps missing the trees for the forest. I remember that in Bird by Bird, Lamott urged writers to pay attention. To be honest, I haven’t cultivated this capacity to observe things in great detail and recreate these details in my writing. Can this be learned? I have been trying to incorporate images and details in my writings of late, but to be perfectly honest, it feels forced and a little fake. I think that the key is to write about significant details, those that will help to bring the audience into our writing, without distracting them. I really appreciated the illustration that Burroway provided through her analysis of the excerpt from Anne Tyler’s Accidental Tourist. She clearly demonstrated how the right details can bring the readers into the story in an authentic and meaningful way. In contrast, the excerpt from Nadine Gordimer’s The Diamond Mine was an experience in excavation (please excuse the pun). The minute I started reading, I started digging for both meaning as well as an escape. Although it was a very sensual piece, I frankly didn’t give a damn. While I was reading the excerpt, I felt like I was watching scenes from a foggy laboratory window. The writing seemed somewhat vague. Heck, I don’t even know the names of the characters in the story, nor what makes them tick. While there was detail after lush detail, it didn’t take long before I just started skimming the pages and praying that I was near the end. I am a pig, I know. Maybe I have no sense of poetry. I did appreciate the images and metaphors (the cave, you know), but unlike the Tyler excerpt in which I actually empathized with Macon, I felt no connection with the one that was called Tilla and her anonymous paramour. So, in the end I learned both how I want to write as well as how I don’t want to write. While I’d like to write more vividly, I want to be judicious (think Emile Zola) about the details I include in my writing without overwhelming the reader with purple prose. I have begun to the think of a writer as a movie director. Everything included in the shot should serve to convey a crisp, clear image. And, the images should help tell the story, not be a venue for unadulterated self-indulgence. (As opposed to my rantings here.)