The Art of Fiction: Chapter 2

1. Grammar is important. Master the basic rules of the English language.

2. What should "Write what you know" really mean?

• Gardner: write the type of story you know and like the best.
• To add to this: 

• use your personal experiences to better understand human actions and human interaction. 
• use your personal experiences to tap into different emotional and psychological reactions humans have to different situations.

• Nobody needs to equate "Write what you know" to personal biography. That's too reductive of a lesson. That phrase means: If you have lost a love one under X type of circumstances, you better understand loss of any kind than someone who can only imagine types of grief. What your experiences give you is emotional knowledge of the human condition, which is invaluable to the writer. You can empathize!

3. Verisimilitude! The ability to be consistent in the world you create, and to make that world plausible -- even if the world is surreal or absurd or in some other way extraordinary.

• Truth doesn't make the story. Characters and events must be interesting and convincing.
• Use foreshadowing details, flashbacks, and other clues in the plot to keep us reading.
• Use concrete images based on your study of human behavior and physiology. 
• Vivid imagery: detail, detail, detail. 

4. Again, you can't be experimental if you don't know what is traditional. Good, fresh writing comes from a need to study what's already been written--and how it was.

Read Chapter 3, "Interest and Truth," for Wednesday's class.