✍🏽 Learning to trust the reader. One thing I’ve been exploring in my fiction writing class latel...✍🏽 Learning to trust the reader. One thing I’ve been exploring in my fiction writing class latel...
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Leyland Trent
• 5h
✍🏽 Learning to trust the reader.
One thing I’ve been exploring in my fiction writing class lately is the power of diction and dialogue.
I recently revisited one of my own scenes and realized something: I was explaining too much.
Instead of telling readers exactly what my character was feeling, I started experimenting with letting the dialogue, physical reactions, word choice, and silence carry the emotion.
📖 Reading Jerome Stern’s Making Shapely Fiction and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants helped me see this differently.
Sometimes, what a character doesn't say can be just as important as what they do say.
I’m learning that good fiction doesn’t always hand the reader every emotion and every answer. Sometimes, we have to leave enough space for the reader to step into the scene and experience it for themselves.
That realization has changed how I approach my writing.
I wrote more about this process, including an excerpt from my own fiction, on my Substack.
🔗 Read “Learning to Leave Room for the Reader” on my Substack: https://leylandthewriter.substack.com/p/learning-to-leave-room-for-the-reader
📚 Want to read along with me?
Making Shapely Fiction — Jerome Stern 🛒 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Making+Shapely+Fiction+Jerome+Stern
Hills Like White Elephants — Ernest Hemingway 🛒 Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Hills+Like+White+Elephants+Ernest+Hemingway
If you’re interested in following my writing journey, subscribe to my Substack. I’ll be sharing more about fiction, creativity, reading, and what I’m learning as I continue developing my craft. ✍🏽📚
What are you currently learning about your own creative process? 👇🏽
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