Perception and the Tree Stump: How Your Writing Reads to Others

Writers are some of the most creative people on the planet. Everything around them is fuel for their inspiration. It might be the way the sky looks in the morning or an overheard bit of conversation at the grocery store. It might be something their kids said or a dream they had overnight.

They take the inspiration and create something out of nothing, whether it's a character, a setting, or an entire story. And no matter where the inspiration comes from, writers have to use words to bring them to life. The movie playing in their head has to appear within the lines of prose in a way that the imagined becomes the real to the reader. They want the reader to be able to picture what they dreamed up inside their head, both in appearance and mood.

Don't Get Lost

Sometimes writers get lost in getting the words down without taking a moment to think about how their words are perceived by the reader. Does the reader see the same movie? Do they feel the heartache of a breakup? Do they experience the joy of winning the heart of another? Do they see the landscape beyond the window the same way the writer does? Do they know what the monster under the bed looks like?

It's important that the author's imagined world be conveyed in a way the reader sees, hears, and experiences as intended. When they don't, the reader doesn't stay engaged in the story, and the author loses them.

What if you were reading a passage like this?

'I stumbled upon a tree stump in the woods.'

You'd probably imagine something like this, right?

Boring Tree Stump

Just a boring, run-of-the-mill tree stump. Not very exciting, is it? I mean, who hasn't seen a tree stump like that? But, what if I told you that's not even close to the tree stump I stumbled across?

Let's try something a little different.

'Lost, wandering in the thick woods for hours, I stumbled across something of nightmares, a stump with a twisted frenzy of tentacles grabbing at the earth, trying to pull the insatiable, squid-like beast into the light of day, its hellish eye watching closely.'

Crazy Octopus Tree Stump

The passage is a little more engaging, isn't it? And after reading it, your mind isn't filled with the first image above, is it?

How Does Your Writing Read to Others?

Writers need to always keep in mind how their work reads to others, which is why it's important to have other people give feedback on the work. Whether it's friends, other writers, or beta-readers, their opinions and feedback can be invaluable to the writers to ensure the intended picture they imagined and then painted with words doesn't read like an ordinary, boring tree stump.

Pause, the next time you're writing, and think about how your writing reads to others.

Always remember to write ON!