[stylist] More Comments on Eve's sharing post

[Eve Sanchez]

Bridget, You may have missed it then. I was not commenting on Vonnegut.
Never heard of him and don't really care about him. (did look him up and
think he was on the fringe of sanity, but that has nothing to do with
anything)   What I was saying is that we should use this as a sharing
prompt since the person I had arranged for in December backed out. All I
was saying is that I wanted everyone to share their own personal tip for
writing. Mine was to pay attention to details. Everyone may not agree with
each other's advice, but that is okay. Let's share what we use or think is
important. I am leaving town tomorrow and will not be on for some time so I
am hoping that through the month people will participate. Get the ball
rolling girl. Add to the list. What is your tip? Eve

On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 4:40 PM, Bridgit Pollpeter <bpollpeter at hotmail.com>wrote:

> 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
> Message-ID:
>
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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
>
>
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