The power a writer has over its reader is a very interesting power to have. A writer has the power to make the reader picture absolutely anything they wish, whether it be bad, good, sad, scary, comical etc. True, anybody can describe something in a way that will paint a picture in someone’s mind, but it is the truly gifted writers that are able to incorporate that elementary, however, important aspect of “show, not tell”. In Harlmans “White Swans and Photographic Seeing” the author states, “There once was a bird passing over a canal, and there is the Swan, a Bird, token of Nature, passing through Life, again and again and again.” In that one sentence, I see the literal bird in my head passing over a canal, which is the author telling me what to see, but as I keep reading, I see a more symbolic passing of time and age, which is the author showing. My perception of what that looks like may be different than someone elses, but regardless, it is the same idea and topic we are both picturing in our heads.
I do not believe there are necessarily “responsibilities” that come with a writer’s power; however, he or she should have the ability to be clear and concise, as to not confuse the reader. It is very hard to be interested in piece of writing that is either too confusing to understand, or too dry to be interesting enough to suck the reader in. It is the happy medium between making it complicated and sophisticated writing, but also straight-forward and concise that makes a writer talented and a piece of writing worth reading.
In my writing, I aspire to create colorful and detailed pictures in my reader’s heads. For example, in my Close Observation Project, I wrote, “The year is 1915, exactly 100 years ago, and students of the first high school in Orange are walking to class. A mixture of nerves and excitement fill their stomach, as they stroll, bike, and run down the street to school.” In these two sentences, I have attempted to create a typical “before school” scene that one would see if he or she parked outside of a real school at around 8:00 am. In my head, the younger students, perhaps being the more eager of the bunch, are the ones running down the street excited to start their day. The older students, however, perhaps a little less excited to start school, will stroll down the sidewalk, not as interested in getting to school right away. Although that is only one persons interpretation of this very typical scene, it enables each reader to have guidance in what they are supposed to be seeing, while also letting the reader use his or her own imagination to create their own scene.
In my free time, one of my favorite things to do is read. Sometimes it is a new novel, and sometimes it’s an old one, but regardless, getting lost in the descriptions of scene after scene sucks me in more than television or movies could ever. I feel as if I am almost experiencing it personally when I read, because I get so very caught up in my head. But that’s just it. Its in my head not in front of me on a screen. What I see when reading a book is different than what another see’s because it is different in our heads, but it is the freedom to picture it just as you want that makes it special to me. I cherish the times I can get lost in a book, and I hope with my writing to do the same for my readers.
among the trees 