The plethora of gifts to the mind from the Internet, to me dazzling! The track from each gift leads to another and another, farther than I want to travel in any one setting or day. Here's one trip. I take you on the route.
I access this blog by an agent who handles (if it's right) ah, experimental fiction. Her site is on my list of links.
Her site leads me to da dah...
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/08/don-rsquo-t-write-what-you-know/8576/
The topic is write what you DON'T know. Immediately I take to the premise because its contrary to what I have been taught - and alas, have taught. "Miss Cover, but YOU said..."
For the real thing I encourage you to go to the site! It's a lovely piece of writing in itself - by By Bret Anthony Johnston in his Essay which appeared in Fiction 2011 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Because I have a bizarre weakness for snippets, short quotations, and homilies, I list a few from the article that I especially like and stand alone as statements.
But first I begin with two statements I as an adult artist have "grown up on" These are not from Brett's article. I put them first because visual artists discover everything before writers. OK, take exception, see what I care.
1. "Art is the lie that tells the truth." famously by Picasso
2. “Never paint what you know, paint what you see.”
Now for the quote-ables from Brett's article and I hope this is not a copyright infringement. Oh well, come at me. You can have what I own. I'm a hoarder and I need to get rid of stuff.
1. Sometimes, the critic notes a parallel between my background and that of a character. At other times, the reasoning is fuzzier. A woman at a reading once told me, “I liked your book a lot, but the stories made me think you’d be taller.” I’m never offended; at times, I’ve been weirdly flattered
2. I was writing to explain, not to discover. The writing process was as exciting as completing a crossword puzzle I’d already solved. So I changed my approach.
3. Stories aren’t about things. Stories are things.
4. Stories aren’t about actions. Stories are, unto themselves, actions.
5. “Story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.”
6. something is gained by setting imagination loose on history, something profound and revelatory and vital: empathy. Empathy, to my mind, is the channel through which writer and reader can most assuredly connect with the characters
7. The lesson is a good one for fiction writers: stories fueled by intentions never reach their boiling point.
I access this blog by an agent who handles (if it's right) ah, experimental fiction. Her site is on my list of links.
Her site leads me to da dah...
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/08/don-rsquo-t-write-what-you-know/8576/
The topic is write what you DON'T know. Immediately I take to the premise because its contrary to what I have been taught - and alas, have taught. "Miss Cover, but YOU said..."
For the real thing I encourage you to go to the site! It's a lovely piece of writing in itself - by By Bret Anthony Johnston in his Essay which appeared in Fiction 2011 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Because I have a bizarre weakness for snippets, short quotations, and homilies, I list a few from the article that I especially like and stand alone as statements.
But first I begin with two statements I as an adult artist have "grown up on" These are not from Brett's article. I put them first because visual artists discover everything before writers. OK, take exception, see what I care.
1. "Art is the lie that tells the truth." famously by Picasso
2. “Never paint what you know, paint what you see.”
Now for the quote-ables from Brett's article and I hope this is not a copyright infringement. Oh well, come at me. You can have what I own. I'm a hoarder and I need to get rid of stuff.
1. Sometimes, the critic notes a parallel between my background and that of a character. At other times, the reasoning is fuzzier. A woman at a reading once told me, “I liked your book a lot, but the stories made me think you’d be taller.” I’m never offended; at times, I’ve been weirdly flattered
2. I was writing to explain, not to discover. The writing process was as exciting as completing a crossword puzzle I’d already solved. So I changed my approach.
3. Stories aren’t about things. Stories are things.
4. Stories aren’t about actions. Stories are, unto themselves, actions.
5. “Story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.”
6. something is gained by setting imagination loose on history, something profound and revelatory and vital: empathy. Empathy, to my mind, is the channel through which writer and reader can most assuredly connect with the characters
7. The lesson is a good one for fiction writers: stories fueled by intentions never reach their boiling point.
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