A Page of Roth

The page I wrote was pretty much all dialogue.  I think that the major challenge in writing a creative story for the first time is to present a scene.  We have always been used to analytical writing and analyzing things, but telling a story is something completely different.  Roth uses the phrases “he said” and “she said” a fair amount of during the scene, which helps the reader visualize the scene.  This I think is the main goal of fiction writing.  For the writer’s words to inspire the reader to create the scene in their mind.  While reading Goodbye Columbus, Roth definitely succeeds in this goal.  I am completely able to see the scenes in my mind as I am reading the words on the page. 

Part of the challenge may be using different voices for different characters.  A good novel may not always be the best written piece of work in the world.  The idea I think is to write as the narrator or person speaking would talk.  If the speaker would not talk in a very elegant prose, it should not be written that way.  Roth definitely does a great job of presenting the words of the characters as very realistic, again letting the reader follow the story well.

It was also interesting to use the sentence structure he employs.  He writes in very short sentences, which I kind of think helps keep the reader’s attention and follow the story.  Writing analytical papers I have always written in a style with fairly long sentences, but I can definitely see how shorter sentences is the best way to present a scene.  While I am reading the page it is almost as if I am reading a play.  The writer is not just writing, but he is telling a story, which I think writing the page from the book really helped me to realize.