There are years of writing lessons in this single paragraph.
“Local color is writing that is only about difference—what makes this particular place exotic. Regional writing is writing that shows what is distinct about a place—its language, culture and all of that—yet at the same time says something universal. Eudora Welty says it better than I can. She says that one place understood helps us understand all other places better. That’s been a credo for me. I think that if you go deep enough into one place, you hit the universal.” - author Ron Rash
Read more of Ron Rash's interview and details about his new book, The Cove
, here on BookPage.
This is a powerful paragraph, and yes, it does have years of lessons within it. The universal of writing--through the unique and the different--is something we writers strive to achieve because if we can hit a universal, we speak to all hearts, and it is here that change can happen.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, agreed, Barbara! I like what you said about "speaking to hearts." That's where the real emotion is in a story.
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