Nothing is sillier than the creative writing teacher's dictum"Write about what you know." But whether you're writingabout people or dragons, your personal observation of howthings happen in the world—how character reveals itself—canturn a dead scene into a vital one. Preliminary good advicemight be: Write as if you were a movie camera. Get exactlywhat is there. All human beings see with astonishing accuracy,not that they can necessarily write it down.
-John Gardner
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