“A writer cannot simply sit around, hoping that an idea for a book will just magically appear,” argues Rachel Jelinek. “Instead, they have to leave their home and experience the world around them”:
I think there is a major difference between reading about an experience and actually living the experience. With the numerous books I’ve read over the course of my life, I have read about love, loss, traveling around the world, and being successful. I have felt twigs snapping beneath my feet in the Alaskan woods with Chris McCandless from Into the Wild and I have travelled across the country on a train with Jacob Jankowski from Water for Elephants.
But the main difference is that I have read about them, not actually experienced them for myself. The key to producing great writing is to be able to portray the five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound) and to make that reader feel as though he or she is in the character’s place. But if a writer has not done these things for himself or herself, than the writing is not as authentic. The character’s experiences will stay on the page instead of leaping out and being felt by the reader.
(Hat tip: The Rumpus)
The Dish 