"The more transparent the writing, the more visible the poetry.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Writing Tool
This TED talk on "Beautiful Words to Describe Obscure Emotions" by John Koening takes less than eight minutes to watch but will have you thinking about words and the evolution of language for days. As writers, we are urged to find new ways to describe human emotions. Koening invents his own words and phrases to fill gaps in language.
Craft Tip
The quote above relates transparency to poetry. Beautiful writing is meaningless if it is not understood, and part of transparency is providing a road map that allows the reader to know the time and place of each scene in a novel. If a reader is forced to wonder where a character is or has to go back to an earlier page to figure out what day or year it is, they come out of the action of the story. Give your reader this information at the start of a new scene. These time and date stamps may not be exciting, but they quickly give the reader signposts that help with story transparency and allow them to read forward fully engaged.
There's a Story Here: Soglio, Switzerland, looking toward the Italian Alps, 1999
What story would you write about this photo?
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