this is so interesting, Susannah. Thanks for sharing. I had a short story highly commended in two competitions last year and the report from one of them said 'I knew I was in experienced hands from the first line'. I don't think I took much notice at the time but now you've mentioned it, I will be more punctilious about crafting my first lines in future!
Thanks for sharing these insights so generously from your experience as a reader. It's a great reminder about how subjective acceptances and rejections are, but also how, ultimately, we all want to feel moved by a great story in some way.
I was also late to Olive Kitteridge and think it's a masterpiece. As you say, I felt SO much for her, despite her shortcomings. It's such a human book in the sense that it doesn't look away from painful things, or dictate how we should see them, rather it observes them so the emotional impact somehow becomes inevitable for the reader. Such brilliant writing 💚
Thank you for reading and a hearty yes to both of your points! And your description of Oliver Kitteridge is sublime! Yes, it SUCH a human book, that is a fantastic way to put it. So uncomfortable at times, so real. I just saw they made it into a show. I wonder if a show could capture the nuance that Strout gets on the page?
Lovely post Susanna 🥰 See you at Teas and Tales on Sunday! 👍
Thanks so much, Eva. Looking forward to seeing you there :)
this is so interesting, Susannah. Thanks for sharing. I had a short story highly commended in two competitions last year and the report from one of them said 'I knew I was in experienced hands from the first line'. I don't think I took much notice at the time but now you've mentioned it, I will be more punctilious about crafting my first lines in future!
Oh I am so glad it was helpful and fantastic to get that story highly commended in two different competitions!!
Thanks for sharing these insights so generously from your experience as a reader. It's a great reminder about how subjective acceptances and rejections are, but also how, ultimately, we all want to feel moved by a great story in some way.
I was also late to Olive Kitteridge and think it's a masterpiece. As you say, I felt SO much for her, despite her shortcomings. It's such a human book in the sense that it doesn't look away from painful things, or dictate how we should see them, rather it observes them so the emotional impact somehow becomes inevitable for the reader. Such brilliant writing 💚
Thank you for reading and a hearty yes to both of your points! And your description of Oliver Kitteridge is sublime! Yes, it SUCH a human book, that is a fantastic way to put it. So uncomfortable at times, so real. I just saw they made it into a show. I wonder if a show could capture the nuance that Strout gets on the page?
Oh wow, I'd love to see that out of curiosity, hard to follow the book but interesting to see what nuance it adds!