Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter

contrary-to-all-those-times-youve-heard-a-writer-confess-at-a-reading-that-he-writes-fiction-because-he-is-a-pathological-liar-fiction-writing-is-all-about-telling-the-truth-paul-hard.

I have stumbled upon a lie about fiction. And Paul Harding exposes it in his quote. The best fiction tells the truth. Being truthful in fiction differs from being factual. You want situations and characters to leap off the page, be someone who you might meet on the street, at an airport or your daughters’ school.

Readers have finely tuned lie detectors and will spot characters who do not act true to their nature. The risk being they will throw your book across the room crying “Bunkum and Balderdash!”

What character has felt “real” to you? Have you met a character who was not?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

11 thoughts on “Daily Quote”

  2. I’ve dabbled in fiction a few times, in most cases, writing a first-person piece exactly how I would write a CNF essay. While the circumstances are made up, in each case, the protagonist responds to the situation exactly how I would. My fiction pieces are just a real as my non-fiction pieces, they just haven’t happened (yet).

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    • That is great! You know your character is authentic since he is based on what you would do. We often run aground when we create characters that are not based on what we would do. Understanding those motives gets more difficult. 😊

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  4. This is such a true quote, glad I went back and found it, since I missed it when you posted it.
    Having written a fiction book with a co-author I can say that we both feel that the characters are SO REAL! The books may be done and published, but we still talk to them. LOL! But seriously, yes the characters have very real attributes to them for they came from our hearts and when you pour yourself into a character, how can they not be real?

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    • Well I’m glad you found it. I love characters who come alive on the page. I strive to attain that feel even in my short pieces. So hard in only 100 words or so. I think you have it right, pouring a piece of yourself into the character can’t be a bad thing.

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