Thoughts on the The Road and writing

I'm reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy right now. I've seen the movie, so I know the basic gist of the plot. I've also read one other McCarthy book (Blood Meridian...holy shit you guys...have you read that? Because...wow...anyway, that's a whole other post). As of now, I'm about halfway through The Road, and if you are familiar at all with it, you know that it is unrelentingly grim. The writing is, of course, excellent. And I've been trying to think of why it's excellent.

I've seen a lot of writing where flaws are somewhat disguised by flowery language, excess words, and the like. I am absolutely guilty of this, but it's something I try to avoid. I think that rule “Show, don't tell” applies very strongly here when thinking about McCarthy's writing. Take this passage:

They made a dry camp in a woodlot not far from the road. They could find no sheltered place to make a fire that would not be seen so they made none. They at each of them two of the cornmeal cakes and they slept together huddle don the group in the coats and blankets. He held the child and after a while the child stopped shiver and after a while he slept.

It's simple, to the point, descriptive. But I think that (especially in the context of the book itself), it paints an evocative picture and also allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about the story and what it means.

I also think that this descriptive, spare style can be applied to comics where the “Show, don't tell” rule is especially important. When I'm writing a script, I try to constantly challenge myself about dialogue, plot elements, or even characters by asking the “Is this necessary?” question again and again. If it's not necessary to the story, in my mind it should go. There may be stuff not necessarily related to the main plot, but it is still relevant the story, even if just for setting the tone/mood/whatever.

I tried to keep this approach with The Anywhere Man...I probably succeeded in some areas and failed in others, but that's ok. I can see the problems with the first issue. And I hope to have some of those issues corrected/addressed in the second or third issue so that the story Tim and I are creating is as strong as possible.

So. Moral of the story. At the end of the day, simple, descriptive writing shows a writer's confidence in the quality of the story. And that's what it's all about.