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- Go to Thank Goodness Blogit is Police Free
it's weird i have never encountered andy "police" anywhere.. then again I probably just don't pay attention. i definitely agree that you can tell when someone writes what they know, but i also think that the observation of others can make for great characters.
posted by
Monogamy
on April 18, 2005 at 9:15 AM
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Life is too short to police but mind you I do see some blogs in writing which are not about writing even in an obscure or mystical sense and I simple wonder why authors decide on that category. As I posted about a day or two ago, I think there are a handful of good blogs about writing and that we have a vacuum. It must be so if my hastily-typed posts do well. I am serious about that.
As for understanding others enough to write about them, this is something that non-fiction writers must work toward every day. Nice post
posted by
Azur
on April 18, 2005 at 6:20 AM
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My first
Visit to your post.. I will defintely be back because I enjoyed it!
posted by
Offy
on April 18, 2005 at 4:36 AM
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which is, in fact, mormon....or just similar...? this is where my ignorance comes in...
posted by
Temple
on April 18, 2005 at 3:07 AM
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Church of the Latter Day Saints...
C'mon folks...read her about me page :)
posted by
Temple
on April 18, 2005 at 3:03 AM
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I would like to know what LDS is too???
posted by
Ca88andra
on April 18, 2005 at 2:11 AM
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just found your Blog...
i liked everything i've read here so far, but since it's almost four in the a.m., i'm going to turn the light out and go to bed! i'll be back to
peruse again tomorrow. as for what you had to say about writing, i agree that it is best to write what you know. i wish i had started writing at the age you did...and kept it up. keep on doing what you're doing!
posted by
muser
on April 18, 2005 at 2:00 AM
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Forgive my ignorance but what is LDS?
posted by
Whacky
on April 18, 2005 at 12:26 AM
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I like the last paragraph - "writing where your heart is". I think that hits the real core of writing. It's not what you know, but whether your heart is there. Of course, it is most times when you write what you know.
As for getting into a character's background and applying it, it does depend on research, even a while walking in similar shoes. I've never had difficulty working out what people in different religions or cultures would do in specific situations - it's a kind of paradigm shift, and it takes a bit of effort to do, but once you have the knack, it's easy to move into that paradigm and back into one's own.
posted by
L.E.Gant
on April 17, 2005 at 9:28 PM
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They could if they really did their homework, for example how many people outside of Utah would know that the beverage at any LDS gathering in Hawaiian punch laced with 7-Up and green Jello is one of the four basic Relief Society potluck groups (though I prefer Cherry Jello).
posted by
tigerprincess
on April 17, 2005 at 9:01 PM
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Excellent post!
posted by
Original_Influence
on April 17, 2005 at 8:59 PM
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It's a lot easier to write what you know. I think it would take a lot of research to write from outside...and an openness to really try to understand what the other person is experiencing. But I do think it could be done if you didn't have too much prejudice against your subject.
What do you think? Could a non-mormon write about an LDS character convincingly? I think that with the right research, they probably could. But they would have a hard time it they were really against the church in the first place because then they would have a block against putting themselves in the shoes of the people they interviewed or read about.
posted by
DarrkeThoughts
on April 17, 2005 at 8:41 PM
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