I love “Personal leads to originality” so much more than the often touted “Write what you know.” For whatever reason, the methodology of imbuing my experiences into a story was always taught as injecting a little bit of myself into the main characters as part of the notion that we imbue all art we make with a little of ourself and to do so intentionally and with purpose. Not bad advice but one that left me unsatisfied, wondering if this would only lead to a series of self-insert protagonists and villains (this character represents my hopes, the one my horror, etc). But this newsletter and classes have really opened my eyes to how that can be applied in a larger way, in the subtext and themes of the story, and I’m super thankful for that. Here’s to a great start of the year!
I love “Personal leads to originality” so much more than the often touted “Write what you know.” For whatever reason, the methodology of imbuing my experiences into a story was always taught as injecting a little bit of myself into the main characters as part of the notion that we imbue all art we make with a little of ourself and to do so intentionally and with purpose. Not bad advice but one that left me unsatisfied, wondering if this would only lead to a series of self-insert protagonists and villains (this character represents my hopes, the one my horror, etc). But this newsletter and classes have really opened my eyes to how that can be applied in a larger way, in the subtext and themes of the story, and I’m super thankful for that. Here’s to a great start of the year!
Thank you for this insight! The practical life advise is super helpful as well as the technical.
Very interesting, useful, and inspirational as always, very excited for the print release of Clear, adored reading that digitally!