5 Things Les Miserables Taught Me About Writing

I read Les Miserables last Easter and can safely say that all your points are true! I love the way you compare the reading of our beloved ‘brick’ to the building of a Gothic Cathedral and the last gif is so, so true- good find and brilliant post!
Phoenixflames12 x

one word at a time

Les Miserables as a gothic cathedral, according to my imagination.

Reading Les Miserables is a serious commitment. Even if you’re a fast reader, it’s going to take a long time. At the same time, when you finish it, you’ll feel like it could have gone on forever. Like it should have gone on forever.

When I read Les Miserables, it helped me realize a few things about writing that I didn’t understand before. Here’s what I learned:

1. It’s okay to get all descriptive. 

Hugo is the king of descriptions. He spends entire chapter simply describing character appearances and habits and nothing else. For me, this was such a liberating thing to read, because it made me bolder about writing my own descriptions.

Because, like most kids, I was raised to fear passive verbs, I’ve always found descriptions tricky to write. For instance, if you can’t say, “her hair was…

View original post 629 more words