Writers voices talks writing with Sue Halpern author of Summer Hours at the Robbers Library. “They (the characters) definitely develop and I think what happens is that you sort of start, you wind them up a little bit and then they take on a life of their own and they may start talking to you. I know that there are some people who find it easier and more reassuring to kind of come up with a very detailed outline of plot and character and more power to them. I’m not really good at that because I find that the characters want to explain themselves, as the process goes along and I need to be open to that.”
Someone asked me the other day what the difference between writing fiction and non-fiction was; and I think that one of the differences is that in fiction the characters talk to you and they tell you things and you are transcribing; and in non fiction you are really talking to yourself, you are saying how should I say this thing that I need to say.
Everyone’s life is an unfolding story; and all stories have good guys and bad guys, and all stories have conflicts and resolutions, and all stories if they are interesting, have drama.
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