This line in Laurie Frankel’s new book, One Two Three, didn’t strike me because I have something to feel guilty about. I’m not harboring guilt over an enormous secret, or a lie I’ve told, or a mistake I’ve made.The line struck me because the unexpected image it invoked enabled me to connect to the character’s emotion. A good book makes me feel as if I’ve climbed into the story. A great book makes me not want to leave. Sentences like this keep me thinking about the characters long beyond the last page. It’s the difference, and every writer’s goal, between telling and showing.
Make Me Feel
Was the character physically grabbed by the ears and shaken in the face? Of course, not. But as a reader, in just a few words, instead of a line like, “I feel guilty” or even “my guilt nauseated me,” with this line, I get a vivid picture that the character’s emotion was so strong, she felt as if it physically grabbed her, shook her. That’s remarkable writing.
I can’t claim to have mastered this skill yet, but I’m working on it. That I can identify it, that it jumps off the page and touches me, that gives me hope that I have a chance at succeeding.
Make Me Think
Of course, the line also had me thinking. Have I ever had an emotion affect me so strongly that I felt grabbed and shaken? Have I had experiences that changed me physically? Of course, I had. A bad breakup. An unwinnable argument. A lost pet. A child’s heartbreak. A child’s disappointment.
And those are just the negative things.
There are big, positive moments that grab and shake me as well. A great first date. A declaration of love. A child’s first smile. A child’s success. A writing achievement.
A great line in a book has the same power as that of a great song lyric. The words stun us with the connection we make to it. We remember it. It’s what keeps me reading late into the night and what makes me excited to pick my next book.
Thanks, Laurie Frankel, this is one great line.
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I like the line because it immediately creates the visual image but I’ve never experienced such guilt ,,, maybe any guilt. It is however something I would like to do to other people …. Shake them out of complacently, and non involvement in situations that cry for their participation.. instead I use “my words” to arouse interest .