“Here’s the problem with Write what you know: What too many aspiring writers know, it turns out, is that a suburban American adolescence causes vague feelings of sadness — especially when one’s formative years include a dying grandparent or housepet. A way to avoid such tedium is to write what you don’t know, to labor toward peculiarity. The risk there is that your well-researched make-believe might come off as exactly that: a fake. It’s the lucky writer whose story is familiar to himself and exotic to his readers.”<\/p>\n
– Darin Strauss<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Here’s the problem with Write what you know: What too many aspiring writers know, it turns out, is that a suburban American adolescence causes vague feelings of sadness — especially when one’s formative years include a dying grandparent or housepet. … Continue reading