This is another story I think of as a window. It has minimal arcs, very little information, just a snapshot moment of two people’s lives together. Fiction works by allowing the reader to climb inside the world and experience events for themselves, what creative writing teachers and editors always reduce to “show, don’t tell.” Readers come to a text with a life of experiences behind them and an understanding of how the world works. As such, there’s no need for a storyteller to explain things like emotion, motivation, reaction. We already know, already understand. For example, the repeated chorus “who has time?” doesn’t need a backstory. We don’t need to know why they are both busy, we all get the feeling of having so many things we would do if only we had the time, and we also know people who use that as an excuse not to do things, not to try things. The reader doesn’t need a paragraph of “She wished she could do X, Y and Z but because of her job, which was A, she didn’t have the time.” That’s all redundant. “Who has the time?” is enough.
Behind the Words: A Trolley Full of Marx
Behind the Words: A Trolley Full of Marx
Behind the Words: A Trolley Full of Marx
This is another story I think of as a window. It has minimal arcs, very little information, just a snapshot moment of two people’s lives together. Fiction works by allowing the reader to climb inside the world and experience events for themselves, what creative writing teachers and editors always reduce to “show, don’t tell.” Readers come to a text with a life of experiences behind them and an understanding of how the world works. As such, there’s no need for a storyteller to explain things like emotion, motivation, reaction. We already know, already understand. For example, the repeated chorus “who has time?” doesn’t need a backstory. We don’t need to know why they are both busy, we all get the feeling of having so many things we would do if only we had the time, and we also know people who use that as an excuse not to do things, not to try things. The reader doesn’t need a paragraph of “She wished she could do X, Y and Z but because of her job, which was A, she didn’t have the time.” That’s all redundant. “Who has the time?” is enough.