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Mansi's avatar

I enjoyed reading what felt like a reverence to the process of fully understanding the nuances and the layers and the deepest, hidden parts of being human before making the characters talk and act like real humans. What a wonderful way to approach fiction writing (coming from the perspective of someone who’s only ever written nonfiction).

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Lilly Dancyger's avatar

thanks so much, Mansi!

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Ruthie Ackerman's avatar

I love the idea of backstory as research!! That's such a great reframe rather than expecting yourself to have a deep understanding of every single nuance in your story as soon as you start writing. I really love how you connect your non fiction skills and how to transfer to fiction writing – the process might be slightly different but ultimately there are many parallels!

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Lilly Dancyger's avatar

Thanks so much, Ruthie! Yeah turns out it doesn't feel as much like starting from scratch as I thought it might...

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Erin Janda Rawlings's avatar

I think that is one of the things that makes writing so interesting - there is always a new part of the craft that makes writing feel new and exciting!

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Lilly Dancyger's avatar

for sure! I love that it's endless and I get to keep learning forever

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Vince Puzick's avatar

“It's been a relief to discover how many nonfiction skills carry over to fiction …” I have often heard this sentiment expressed the other direction— fiction skills and techniques carried over and applied to nonfiction writing. I guess one’s perspective depends on the starting place!

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Lilly Dancyger's avatar

Yes definitely! Maybe it would have been more accurate to talk about it in terms of overlap, rather than direction.

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Judy's avatar

THANK YOU!

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