From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
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Explanation: Be specific rather than vague
From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
Explanation: Be specific rather than vague
- Here's something interesting, we're not wired to think in the abstract, we think in specific images. Concepts, generics, generalizations, can't engage us emotionally. If we can't visualize it, we can't feel it. For something to really penetrate it needs to be put in a context that allows us to vicariously experience it. It's the difference between talking about life on the Mississippi, or seeing it through the eyes of Huck Finn. It may sound counter-intuitive, but a universal theme or emotion is only accessible through a very specific story that focuses on how it specifically affects one person. For instance, when you think of love, you don't envision a concept, you envision images that for you evoke the concept of love, which is why as I'm overly fond of saying, the story is in the specifics. Yet writers often write in vague generalities without even knowing they're doing it. Take a simple sentence like, Jake had a hard day at work.…
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