Truer Than True

Last night I googled "fiction" and read an article from The Atlantic written by a Harvard creative writing instructor. It concludes that we shouldn't use personal experience to pre-package how readers will respond to our work.

I'd like to hear how you manage this tension between inspiration and the ambition to hit notes that Hemingway has described as "truer than true."
All genre writers are welcome to post as I can see how horror -- or even erotica -- writers experience the same dilemma in the creative process.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/08/dont-write-what-you-know/308576/

 

I read it, felt he was grappling to discover some essential truth - which he didn't really find. I tend to agree with the first few of the readers' comments.

These CW tutorial guys are depressing, like 'personal trainers' with their drippy biceps, a v-neck professor. Well, his prose wasn't 'all that,' boring bugger Atlantic...grrr, gravitas, yawwn. How did he write so much?

 

Yeah I didn't like the article. Bad article. Bad boy! Down!

 

Cool. I was hoping I didn't have to write 80k about the turbulent times of Tsarist Russia, the inner life and hardships of the peasant class, and how I grew through self exile.

 

Well, nobody cares about my time with the bomber crews down here in Italy. Back to the cockpit.

 

Write a piece about the migrant ship you're going to torpedo.

 

Yes I will, thank you, although I feel misinterstood, a little. I mean I misinterstood you, I suppose mister J R R Tolstoy.

Here is the final draft:

Below me, a thousand refugees struggled upon their raft. A gaggle, Barbary pirates who so plagued the very territorial integrity of the British Isles, and whose descendants threatened to steal the jobs of hard-working UK subjects. Compelled to launch the napalm capsule, its heat seared a memory across my visor. Bodies burned, boiled an insect barbecue topped in sugar. I inhaled...

 

I venture to speculate that you as well occasionally fancy penning a chav-geared, interlinear translation of Shakespeare for the noble purpose of edifying the post-literate demographic, or are such fantasies of education ministry procurement peculiar to this side of the pond?

 

Dear Brian, slow down, you are being too clever for me; I find myself playing 'catch-up.' Furthermore, I am unable to discern whether you are saying: 'Thanks buddy, I'd love a place in your pocket,' OR 'stick it up your ass, asshole.'

Please help me, kindest regards, mother, who likes you.

 

The backhanded compliment is beyond the ethical capacity of this author, if he doesn't mind saying so himself. From time to time, he will corner British writers into eliciting prejudices against the New World (TM).

 

Okay, I'm ready. What shall I say...you...you big, fat American cowboy. What you gonna do, execute me? Catch me first. Don't shoot, that's cheating.

I don't harbour any...I don't possess the skills to lampoon America, so much. Scotland, yes. Cornwall was once a favourite target. I'll work on it, say something evil to you, later on.

 

So, "writing what you know" exists on a continuum. On one end, you give a thinly veiled retelling of events you have witnessed. On the other end, you take feelings you are familiar with and you bring them to life.

 

Well put, said in 30 words and not 20 000

 

This person is dumb. If you really "wrote what you knew," it would either be a non fiction or an auto biography.

 

This article goes for the controversial title in order to get noticed, but then doesn't really say much.
I'd boil it down to, 'still murder your darlings, even if they're based on real life.'

 

Whence cometh evil, hooligan dart thrower?

 

Here in the US, many have resolved the problem by knowing as little as possible, and then creating Facebook memes about everything else.