Organic writing

Last week I popped Katherine Applegate‘s middle-grade novel in verse, Home of the Brave, into my car’s CD player, and found myself mesmerized by the writing.  It was so good, I had to get the book in print so that I could read—not just listen—and savor her choice of words.

Applegate’s protagonist is a Sudanese boy who struggles to adjust to life in America.  Rather than using descriptive language common to Americans, Applegate infuses the novel with a Sudanese sensibility.  The boy’s observations include:

  • a cloth…soft as new grass after a good rain
  • pleading eyes that shine at you like river rocks in the sun
  • [an optimist] finds sun when the sky is dark
  • snowflakes tap at the window like stubborn mosquitoes.

Such organic writing!  These images grow out of the character and his experiences.

An author’s job is to create a fictional world and—with words alone—invite and compel a reader to slip into it.  The more organic the writing, the easier and faster the slip-slide happens…

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