writing is a bit like...

[animegoil]

I'm going to go out a bit on a limb and say that writing is a bit like sex. Or to put it a little more appropriately, like becoming intimate with someone. Writing and being intimate with someone are both centered around communication. The difference is that writing uses words, while physical intimacy relies more on gestures and touches. But they're both communication. One's verbal, one's silent. But much can be learned from intimacy... and I'm not just talking about learning to write a better, more realistic make-out session once you have the experience. The whole 'show, don't tell' is one of the lessons that can be learned from intimacy, because intimacy relies on actions and gestures to convey certain thoughts and emotions.

Seriously, being intimate with someone is learning to speak their language. A little pressure here, a touch there, his hand over yours- does that mean he likes it, or he wants you to stop doing that? Does that mean more, or pause for a moment? Learning to read someone takes practice, but it's that attention to detail, that realization that the smallest motions or subtlest clues can have larger implications- that's what can be applied to writing. Noticing how he or she flicks their head to the side, or chews the side of their lip, or whatever particular vice or habit they have when trying to convey a particular sentiment- that can be more powerful, or telling, than words. It's exactly the kind of detail that can bring a character or situation alive.

This was the entry I wrote for the daily blog we have to start keeping for my creative writing class XD