Behind the Curtain

There is a certain irony that comes with learning about the writing process and writing techniques. When you learn about them, you become aware of them. When you read, you can notice and identify styles and techniques and tricks that an author uses. You can tell when an amateur is trying to use a technique but doesn't quite understand it yet. You can figure out exactly why it is that some things sound good and others don't.

The irony, of course, is that you aren't supposed to know or see any of those things. The audience isn't expected to be aware of literary techniques and it generally doesn't. Writing is supposed to do what it does and elicit a response from people. In fact, the better a piece of writing is, the harder it is to identify exactly why we like it. It is only when the techniques of writing are done incredibly poorly that they make themselves apparent.

Writing (among other things), can be summed up with one of my favorite quotes: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."