A
teacher asked students in an ESL class reading about author Amy Tan what would
they ask Tan if they could. One student said, “I would ask which experiences
led her to write her stories. After all, we can’t communicate without stories.”
The student’s observation, especially in that context, shed new light on why we
encourage writers, “Show, don’t tell.” We don’t want readers to be spoon-fed a
plot or characters; we want them to have the joy of discovering the story en
route because journey is as important to readers as destination, maybe more so since
the most intimate communication comes by experiencing the tale.
See us next
time for Part 2 of this musing.
Do you have a writing question to share? Email WordforWords.
No comments:
Post a Comment