The more specific you get about your hometown, the more strangers from other hometowns see their own.

CREATIVITY

WHAT THIS MEANS

Specificity is what makes recognition possible, which seems backwards until you watch it happen. A general description of a place gives a reader nothing to stand on, while an exact one hands them the structure of their own memory, which their mind then fills with their own details. You supply the shape and they supply the contents.

Go narrower than feels safe in the next thing you make. Name the actual street, the actual brand, the actual weather, and trust that the strangeness travels better than the summary.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

What about your hometown would only you know to mention?

MORE IN PARADOX, METAPHOR & FOOD FOR THOUGHT

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