The Art of Omission

If a writer of prose knows enough of what [s]he is writing about [s]he may omit things that [s]he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.  ~ Ernest Hemingway

It was a lie, of course

Ender nodded. It was a lie, of course, that it wouldn't hurt a bit. But since adults always said it when it was going to hurt, he could count on that statement as an accurate prediction of the future. Sometimes lies were more dependable than the truth.

When I was barely onto the third page and the tight, pacy narrative was serving up these penetrating insights, I knew I was about to read something really, really good.

Ender's Game: classic military strategy meets dystopian YA speculative fiction. 

I'm loving this book so hard, right now. So, so hard.   

Multistoried

'Our lives are multistoried. There are many stories occurring at the same time and different stories can be told about the same events. No single story can be free of ambiguity or contradiction and no single story can encapsulate or handle all the contingencies of life.' 

~ Alice Morgan 

Problem

The single biggest problem in communication 

is the illusion that it has taken place.

~ George Bernard Shaw 

Words of the week

Observer’s paradox: (in social sciences) Refers to a situation in which the phenomenon being observed is unwittingly influenced by the presence of the observer/investigator. 

Verisimilitude: /vɛrɪsɪˈmɪlɪtʲuːd/ (noun) The ‘lifelikeness’ or believability of a work of fiction. The word comes from Latin: verum meaning truth and similis meaning similar.

Subtext: /ˈsʌbtɛkst/ (noun) The content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly by characters or creator, but is implicit, or becomes understood as the work unfolds. The unspoken thoughts and motives of characters - what they really think and believe.

Perspicacious: /ˌpəːspɪˈkeɪʃəs/ (adj) Having a ready insight into and understanding of things.  (NB rhymes with curvaceous, sagacious, tenacious, and vivacious).  

Character

All good stories are character-driven. It’s a question of degree. Human beings are wired to care much more about who than about what. In fact, we won’t care at all about what, unless we first care about who.

Barry Eisler, when asked “How important is character in your writing?”