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I found this excerpt from The Lovely Bones in my notebook this morning:

Ray’s way of describing such things made her feel as if she knew exactly what it felt like–not just what it looked like. He could evoke everything for her, with small verbal pulse points of which he was completely unaware.

I love this passage because it captures exactly what good fiction writing is all about. “Show, don’t tell” is a writing mantra, but “show” doesn’t do justice to what good writing should accomplish. A good writer goes beyond what things look like. Cinema and television provide visual imagery much more clearly than words on a page ever can–but good writing gives readers a deeper feeling.