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September 11, 2008
Room for One's Readers
I spent a great evening in Olympia on Tuesday, with good friends Bonny Becker and Deb Lund at a fundraiser for the South Sound Reading Foundation. When you've got people coming together to figure out ways to get books in the hands of kids, how could you not have fun? I almost got my photo op with Frog and Toad but missed my chance.
Also there was Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide, a book I've been meaning to read. No longer! I bought it that night and devoured it, finishing it up last night. It's an honest, sweet book with lots of sea creatures and mysteries of life stirred in.
Jim said something that night, right before he read a segment of the story, that I just had to write down: "Writing is a collaborative art between reader and writer." I've heard that said other ways before, but those words spoke to my heart at that moment. They were a reminder to leave room for the reader's participation and involvement in a story, as Linda Urban so brilliantly did in her A Crooked Kind of Perfect and Barbara O'Connor does in all of her books and. . well, when I come to think of it, all the books I especially admire give the reader room to jump in and play along.
So now I have to grab a tape measure and go through the latest revision to make sure I left enough space for a reader to wiggle under the words and get comfy.
Back to work!
Posted by kirby at September 11, 2008 05:38 PM
Comments
Viewing writing as collaborative storytelling between the author's words and the reader's imagination is a great idea.
Thanks for bringing it up - sometimes, even if we know things intuitively, it's great to have them spelled out so we can truly think about them!
Namaste,
Lee
Posted by: Lee Wind at September 12, 2008 11:01 AM