Since we've recently been discussing the elements of writing, I think it's important before we get too far that we talk about the purpose of writers. The question we need to ask ourselves is: What is the writer's job?
In school, they tell you that you write to convey information. This is why you are forced to write papers on topics you aren't necessarily interested in, but must research anyway. This type of writing is called expository writing, and you either have taken or will take a course with this very title at some point.
But what happens when we start to write for creative purposes? What about writing created for the purpose of art or beauty? Many works allow exposition to fall to the wayside so that the integrity of the art piece can shine. This happens especially in poetry and experimental fiction and nonfiction. When it is no longer the writer's sole purpose to convey information in the most logical sense, then what should the writer strive for?
I have an opinion, like I'm sure many other writers and readers do. Now, remember that I am not a widely published author, nor have I published any work over 600 words, but I have been writing for years and I have taken many classes and read many books on this very subject. So,
My Opinion:
I believe that the creative writer's job is to make the mundane interesting.
We see writers doing this all the time. They portray their characters as everyday humans, going to work, napping, hating school, cooking dinner. Then, they transform this mundane event into something that interests a reader. A roadblock appears in the protagonist's life, a map leads to new adventure, or a divorce is finally happening. An interesting plot transports the reader from where they are in their own mundane lives and gives them something else to think about. And someone will only give you their valuable time if they value your plot, your characters, your story, and your writing.
Even the little things like working, napping, and cooking need to be made interesting by the writer, though. This happens through thoughtful, original descriptions. Take F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" as an example. In the first chapter, Fitzgerald describes through his protagonist's eyes, the place in which he will be spending the summer.
"Twenty miles from the city, a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound."
Fitzgerald could have, instead, written something along the lines of: Near Manhattan, I would spend the summer on one of the peninsulas that jut into Long Island Sound.
But he didn't. He chose to take the mundane description of a piece of land and make it interesting. He compares the peninsulas to eggs, the water to domestication, and Long Island Sound to a barnyard. By doing this, Fitzgerald is fulfilling the writer's job by making the mundane events and sights of life into interesting passages a reader will want to spend time with.
In short, the writer's job - to me - is making the mundane, boring life we all know into something new. This can be done partly through plot, but most importantly, it has to be done through writing. The description needs to be great and original. By comparing two things that have never been compared before, the reader is experiencing life in a new way. Not just the protagonist's life, either, but perhaps even their own.
So, there's my take on the description for a creative writer. If you think the writer's job is something other than making the mundane interesting, leave your suggestions in the comments.
(And if you want to read more of "The Great Gatsby" you can find it free, online here)
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