A touch of the real stuff

I am always struck by the way that writers from different countries hone in on strong human stories when they tell their stories. It does not matter where they are writing, or what culture shapes their work, authors come back time and time again to real people and real stories.

This makes me recall my late father, Stan, because he was the one who taught me that drawing from reality informs writing. He always told me when I was a teenager that I should write about what I know. Because I was a bolshy teenager, I did not listen for many years but Dad was absolutely right, of course.

I certainly draw on my experiences as a writer. I find that having gone through an experience, or seen others go through it, helps me to bring a sense of reality to my writing.

But why does that matter? Well, if we are to truly draw our readers into our stories, they have to feel the reality of the situation. That’s what the best of our short story entrants do time after time after time.

And, yes I know that writers can create fictional scenarios without ever having experienced them. Yes, I know that they make them work through the power of their imagination. And yes, I know that science fiction writers have never been to Neptune and fantasy writers have never conversed with gnomes (well, most of them anyway).

But even in those imagined scenarios, what shines through is the writers’ ability to draw on real life, real people, real characteristics, real situations.

It really is a simple maxim: write about what you know because if you believe it, the reader will believe it.

So, thanks Dad.

John Dean