Pithy. Pithy. Pithy! (am so eager for more of it …)
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Are you, like me, pining for the world to get a bit more … Pithy?
A pithy phrase or statement is brief but full of substance and meaning. It often feels like a shot of truth.
(I don’t mean a hit of social media that assumes humans’ attention spans are shorter than a cream shot hitting expresso.)
Can a fiction writer be pithy? Use the pithy phrase successfully and not lose readers? Avoid that moment when readers feel an author reaching through to lecture … or (I’m cringing) hector them?
Wow them with that arresting moment that might define a character and have us thinking about a possible truth long after a page is turned?
Yes! Of course. But, like me, it might be surprising.
I’ve been listening to Agatha Christie’s short stories as I drive. The pithy is jumping out at me in the midst of bodies and more bodies, and even more bodies (and lots of stolen jewels).
So here she is. . . .