Every Friday I’m going to ask a question. The questions I choose might be ambiguous on purpose. The goal is to have you answer the question according to your beliefs, where you’re at in life or a circumstance that might have recently impacted you. The only thing I ask is that you provide an explanation for why you answered the way you did.
It’s my hope to understand you better through this and also to gain a greater understanding of humanity and how people make decisions.
Great writing is meant to crush us, entertain and move us, return us to ourselves with some greater understanding of the world and its workings. ~ Betsy Lerner, THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
Your turn…
What do you believe great writing should do? Or complete this: Great writing is...
*photos by Stock.XCHNG
the kind that makes things shift
ReplyDeleteinspiring and emotion-evoking
ReplyDeleteGreat writing is...truth. One of my favorite novels is The Great Gatsby, and one of the reasons is because it showed the truth of how self-centered some people are. There's a line late in the novel, I'm paraphrasing, but it went like--they were careless people who didn't give a thought to the effects of their actions. Great writing makes me sit up and nod.
ReplyDeleteinspire change
ReplyDeleteI always think of this Emily Dickinson quote, though it's about poems: "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." I think the same thing goes for a moving book--makes you look at the world a whole new way.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid writing was always my way to escape anything that was going on in my life. So for me great writing should take us away.
ReplyDeleteI love your Friday questions.
Great writing makes you want to change for the better. It draws you closer to your true purpose in life and makes you dwell on what's really important.
ReplyDeleteLife-changing.
ReplyDeleteGreat writing should stay in your mind after you close the last page, and it should broaden your horizon, enlarge your thinking, explore ideas. Mostly, Great writing should entertain.
ReplyDeleteTruly great writing--and not just good writing--has something universal that rises above good story/character/craft. That universal element will appeal to a wide audience over a long stretch of time. Is that too broad? Only time will tell w/ most books. Conversely, there's something intensely personal about the books we each love that has nothing to do with great writing. I
ReplyDeleteoops--don't know what I was going to follow with that "I". "I" don't have anything profound to say, maybe.
ReplyDeleteGreat writing is a journey. If it's done right, it will take you somewhere else, whether you want to be there or not :)
ReplyDeleteGreat writing makes you feel something.
ReplyDelete(but feeling anger at the author doesn't count) :-)
Great writing is difficult to produce. (Spoken as one in the midst of edits.)
ReplyDeleteAnd on a more positive note, great writing moves me, changes me, empowers me, encourages me, uplifts me, entertains me, and never ever bores me.
...causes you to stop and view life differently.
ReplyDeleteenlighten and motivate us to better than we were before reading!
ReplyDelete...makes us remember that we are not alone.
ReplyDelete