Annie Proulx Suggests You Live Before You Write

Posted by Madd_Fictional on

Spend some time living before you start writing. What I find to be very bad advice is the snappy little sentence, “Write what you know.” It is the most tiresome and stupid advice that could possibly be given. If we write simply about what we know we never grow. We don’t develop any facility for languages, or an interest in others, or a desire to travel and explore and face experience head-on. We just coil tighter and tighter into our boring little selves. What one should write about is what interests one.

3 responses to “Annie Proulx Suggests You Live Before You Write”

  1. I totally agree. We must live and learn. As we do both we will figure out who we really are, what we want to be and how we will get there. That is where experience and observation collide and we can create compelling fiction.

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  2. This is a great quote I haven’t read before. Thank you!

    I completely agree. I wouldn’t be able to write the things I write if I hadn’t lived through the things I did. And boy, did those things give me story food. And yes, the curiosity is just as vital. No curiosity, no adventure, no experiences to write from.

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