Depth of Thought

What seems to set poems, stories, essays, and novels apart from others?  I believe it to be the depth of thought.

When you think of the best books, you think about those that you can read over and over and over again, always finding things you never found before.  The best poems are ones that have deep symbolism, allusions, and stream of thought; the best novels have deep symbolism, themes, ideas, and plot lines.  Take C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for example, J. R. R. Tolkien thought that the book was terrible and no one would buy it, yet many people did.  It is relatively simple in the style of writing, yet the deep symbolism of and allusions to Christian beliefs make the book so much more.

As I’ve noticed in my own writing, my best works are those in which I go deeper than the surface.  I look to symbols, meter, rhyme, metaphors, and structure.  Also, when one of my English teachers read the first seven chapters she noticed something in one of the chapters: if I made the descriptive words in this certain chapter like words you would find describing an ocean (submerged, drown, flooded, waves, rolled, etc.), then the main character’s final statement and final sentence of the chapter (I choose to swim) so much more powerful.

It is in these moments when we pause and utilize our depth of thought that writing ceases to be just a bunch of words, but becomes an art.  We are the masters of our writing and our audience will only get as much out of it as we put into it.