[stylist] More Comments on Eve's sharing post

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Eve,

I was just trying to inform about Vonnegut, nothing more. I'm no
Vonnegut expert, but I do know a little about him.

I totally agree with you that we need to be credible when writing. I was
taught that whether something is true or not, accurate or not, you must
make it believable, credible, to your readers, grin. This doesn't mean
you make things up for the sake of making things up, but you can write
about things you have no prior knowledge on if you write in a way that
makes your audience think you know what you're writing about.

One of my favorite profs was fond of saying that it's not about writing
what we know, but writing about what we know now. In other words, we
have the ability to write quite literally whatever we want as long as we
research it, and life is always bringing new experiences that add to our
source of knowledge. So nothing is off limits.

If I understand your example, to ask for a Whopper in that particular
region would display the character wasn't aware Burger Kings didn't
exist there, or show that the author didn't know this, but also consider
that not everyone will be as acquainted with the region and may likewise
not know that info either. I certainly didn't know this. I think,
regardless of how minute a detail is, you always have to consider
audience.

And I wasn't disputing your point. I was under the impression you were
addressing the rule Kurt Vonnegut had stated about writing only what is
important to drive the plot forward, so I was just adding to what you
discussed. I only meant that if a conversation about Whoppers is crucial
to a story, then the author better know if Burger Kings have been
established in their setting, but if it has nothing to do with plot of
revealing traits in a character, then it doesn't even matter. I didn't
realize you were speaking to a writer knowing their facts when writing.
This is of course a different conversation, smile.

So yes, in terms of credibility, we should be knowledgeable of our
setting, time period, characters and all the details that go along.
Authenticity is important to any story, but it goes beyond real-life
facts. Our characters and plot itself must be credible, A. K. A., they
must be believable to readers.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2012 16:28:17 -0800
From: Eve Sanchez <3rdeyeonly at gmail.com>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Comments on Eve's sharing lesson post
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Still never heard of him or of any of his books. I am not saying that
you need to put in a bunch of unnecessary details. What I am saying is
that you should not put in something that is not possibly true. That was
just an example I thought would explain what I meant. If it is truly
unneeded and you still want to put something without knowing for sure,
you could say
that dad ate three burgers and...    Don't mention something that is
known
when you do not know if it is true. I truly believe honesty of details
is important. Do not make things up. "Exclude or include, depends on you
and your piece, just be precise with what you use." Eve