We had an apartment in the city,
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha,
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean war,
And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore.
(John Prine - 1st verse of Hello in There)
Lesson 1: write what you know
- You must write!
- Use automatic writing to unblock or "create the kernel"
- Whilst writing what you know is a good thing, you cannot assume that just because it happened the reader will believe it happened. The writing needs authenticating detail - specificity
- Learn to observe - observe in words the way a photographer might observe visually
- Use things that stand out
- Use your imagination to augment authentic details
- Look beyond the obvious
- Use documents and diaries for authentic source material
- Look up words you don't know
- Use a notebook to record experiences or observations
Back to writing course
