Henry James talks about this in The Art of Fiction. “There is a kind of central truth and if you get the central truth, and the motion of people, then the rest is implied. And that’s the knowing behind “write what you know.”” That’s the idea: if you’ve known longing, then you can write longing. Like, have you known happiness? Have you ever been truly sad? Have you ever longed for something? And that’s the point, if you’ve longed for an Atari 2600, as I did when I was twelve, all I wanted was that game console, if you have felt that deep longing, that can also be a deep longing for a lost love or for liberation of your country, or to reach Mars. Why do we love those books, why do they change us, why do they touch our hearts, why do they hold so much meaning? Because they are truer than truth because there is a great knowing within them, and I think what’s behind “write what you know” is emotion.
what it is is empathic advice it’s advice about feeling. I should write a book called What’s Happening? and then I should write a book called Little House on the Prairie is on at 5 o’clock.
Things to write about series#
So I should simply rewrite a whole series of sitcoms for you. It used to terrify me, this idea of “write what you know.” I was dreaming, I was in suburbia, in my house, dreaming of being of a writer, and I thought, what am I going to do with “write what you know”? What I know from childhood is I was on the couch, watching TV. “I think the most famous piece of writing advice that there is is “write what you know,” and I think it’s-honestly, I think it’s the best piece of advice there is, but I think it’s the most misunderstood, most mis-taught, most misinterpreted piece of advice that there is. Nathan Englander: Write What You Know (Emotionally) Whatever the answer, like all writing advice, it’s up to you to take it or leave it. Pick one answer and go with it, or tally up the responses and heed the consensus.
Le Guin to Ernest Hemingway to Kazuo Ishiguro. Here I have collated answers on this very subject from thirty-one famous authors, from Ursula K. But which is it? Should you write what you know or shouldn’t you? Worry no more, aspiring writers: the agony of uncertainty is nearly at an end. Everyone who has ever taken a writing class or read a craft book has heard this piece of writing advice-even if only to have it instantly denounced.
0 kommentar(er)
