Emily Dickinson and the Slant of Truth

Productive Indirection

“Tell all the truth but tell it slant—” Emily Dickinson wrote, and I find myself returning to that line every time my prose feels too blunt. Dickinson was a master of the dash and the white space. She understood that if you look directly at the sun, you are blinded. But if you look at the way the light hits a tree, you understand the sun perfectly.

In our work, we often try to be too direct with our themes. We want the reader to know exactly how much a character is hurting. But profound truth is often too large for a direct sentence. It requires indirection. It requires leaving the thought slightly unfinished so the reader can complete it themselves.

The Monroe Minute
Describe a powerful emotion (like anger or joy) without naming the emotion itself or its direct cause.

Until the next page,
Sloane S. Monroe

Sloane Shay Monroe

I don’t write to idealize love, but to explore it honestly, with emotional precision and depth.