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Fiction Writing Tips

Authentic Writing: Going Beyond “Originality”

August 19, 2024

creativity, fiction, literature, writing

Many writing gurus (🤮) keep parroting the mantra that originality in writing is good. They often don’t even bother to explain what originality is or why it’s good. When they do, rarely, it’s almost always about plot. As a result, we get overrated plots that are “original”, in the sense they are chaotic and nonsensical. Originality (especially when it comes to plot) is much less important than something else: authentic writing.

Sometimes people use these two words interchangeably, but there are crucial differences. Originality refers to rarity, whereas authenticity refers to something much more complex, which I’ll explore in this post: self-honesty.

authentic writing. image of a singer screaming — From the audience’s perspective, it doesn’t really matter if the artist (whether a writer or a musician, as in the photo) **actually** feels their art or they pretend they do. However, from the *artist’s perspective*, it makes your job a hell of a lot easier if you, quoth Bill Hicks, “play from your fucking heart”

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Understanding Depth in Fiction

June 3, 2024

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

creativity, fiction, literature, reality, writing

For most people, depth in fiction sounds like a good thing, right? Just as we conflate vivid descriptions or rich vocabulary with high-quality writing, having a deep narrative must be a great thing, right? Right?

The thing is, there are so many fluid variables in the statement “Depth in fiction is a good thing” that it’s impossible to answer that in any sense-making manner before we truly focus on what it is we’re talking about.

That’s what I’m planning to do in this post.

I’ll first offer some definitions and reflection points on what constitutes depth in fiction and whether it’s always a good thing (sneak preview: it ain’t), and then I’ll list some ways that could add depth to your narrative – if you decide you need it.

depth in fiction. image of woman looking at the sea — This might seem just like a random stock photo to convey the concept of (visual) “depth”, however there is a subtle element crucial to my argument on depth in fiction. Namely, the balance between **depth and width**. If the camera angle was wide (imagine a drone image, high above the person), we wouldn’t quite get the same sense of depth as we do here.

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Ember’s Disappearing Clothes: Unnecessary Diversions in Fiction

October 30, 2023

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

aesthetics, art, creativity, fiction, literature, writing

I’m sure this is one of those post titles I really need to explain. I mean, “unnecessary diversions in fiction” gives you at least some idea what the post will be about, but who the heck is Ember? And what do her disappearing clothes have to do with all this?

Ember is a character in the comic series Storm, drawn by Don Lawrence. In the non-English-speaking world she’s also known as Redhair, from the original Dutch “Roodhaar”. Storm was among my favorite childhood comics – together with Donald Duck. Don Lawrence was an incredible artist, and to me his work still is the reference point for realistic, affectively impactful art.

As a child, I only had the first ten or so Storm books – there have been something like thirty-plus in total, together with some spinoffs. I recently decided to search the net for the books I hadn’t read, and I did find them. It was a nostalgic trip – nostalgia is a trap – but I couldn’t help but notice something interesting: The more the stories progressed, the less… covered Ember became.

diversions in fiction, Ember's disappearing clothes — At first, Ember was dressed in rather ordinary clothes. But after a few books, her style became more and more revealing. By the end of the series (bottom left), there is very little left to imagination (scanned images from original drawings by Don Lawrence).

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