A sense of 'Place'

As a writer, I enjoy sharing a sense of place.  It’s fun to make the reader a participant and not just a viewer.   Good writing needs to breathe and have life.  Young readers today – you know those walking around texting and who think a 5-minute summary newscast is too long; that group? – need to know right away that you’re not going to be boring.

I’m always excited when I find that kind of writing and strive to achieve it myself.  I’ve just been reading Jeanette Walls' Glass Castle.  My first reaction is wow!  Actually that’s my second, third and fourth, too.  And all she’s doing is conveying to us the sense of place and time and people who made up her childhood years.  You really “feel” what she feels and “see” what she sees.  

And so, I echo what's been said before, but probably cannot be said enough times to those who want to be writers:   Write the kind of story in which you want to be a participant.  And write something you like.  If you don't like it yourself, there's a good chance that no one else will like it either. 


Seneca Rock -- along the Seneca Trail in West Virginia -- has provided a 
"Sense of Place" for countless writers or writers-to-be.