As I have returned to have a day job recently, I’ve had less time to write – mostly in dribs and drabs on my lap during lunch (why doesn’t my company have quiet corners with comfy desk chairs just for writing at lunch?).
I’ve begun re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series, and there’s much to say, but I want to start with style.
L.M. Montgomery’s writing was thick with description: smells and sights of all sorts as Anne meanders about the countryside about Avonlea.
I had just finished reading a book – I won’t say which – published this year, and the lack of description shouted at me in comparison with Montgomery’s work.
You can have too much of a good thing: I always found Michener’s work to suffocate under chapters of setting. Get to it already! But I found the illustrations the Anne books brought took me right away to how I imagine Prince Edward Island was in the late 19th century. The characters and events took place behind a misty haze, just out of reach: a sweet feeling of romance.
By contrast, the most famous – and successful – romance writer in history did not use description.
Go ahead. I challenge you to find a jot of Montgomery’s haze in the works of Jane Austen. You won’t find it. Yet her books are the height of romance.
Which do you prefer?