Chee Recounts Wisdom From Annie Dillard

I just came across an essay I wanted to share with you.  It was written by novelist Alexander Chee and she recounts being taught by Annie Dillard, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author at Wesleyan University. (See http://tinyurl.com/ykwfzoq).

I have to say reading it took me back to my college days at Stockton when Professors Ken Tompkins and Tom Kinsella raised my level of writing.  Both believed that writers should only write what is absolutely necessary to make your point. Not a word more.  All the while remembering the best writing — even in the Information Age — is both poetic and effective, concise and deep. Conciseness pierces the mind; art opens the mind and melts the heart.

Man, it’s amazing the things that jog your memory.  I’m learning the essence of writing romance fiction but I had forgotten the wisdom these men imparted from the halls of academia.  I have to find a way to marry the two.  I have to create characters readers will care about, while forging a bond with poetic concrete detail and make them care.

Care enough to keep reading late into the night when they know they should go to sleep.  Care enough to visit this website and ask me when the next novel will be published.  Care enough to employ me to tell a sub-characters story because it was intriguing.  

Please take a moment to read Chee’s essay about Dillard (posted above) and this one posted at http://tinyurl.com/ygt7lqk.  Learn, Grow and Enjoy!