Sunday, June 08, 2008

Writing Quotation of the Week

File this one in the "show, don't tell" category.

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."
--E.L. Doctorow

1 comment:

Aquaryan said...

good quote...

One of the peeves that I have about reading certain novels is that the writer has a character explain to the reader that "It is only a book."

As a reader, I read to enter the illusion of the novel that the writer has written.

For example, The Tower, was well written novel. It takes me inside the story where the characters were 3D. Gregg knows how I have often referred to his novels as characterization works.

A certain author writes a horror novel -- where the main character explains to the reader that he is writing this story. It destroyed my illusion for the remainder of the book. Sadly, this revelation was on the first page.

So, like the quote goes, the latter novel was like the fact it was raining and I was not getting wet.