To what extent is what you write related to what you’ve been through/experienced?
Here’s a quotation from ‘On Writing‘ by Lorrie Moore (1994, republished in 2018):
Fiction writers are constantly asked, Is this autobiographical? Book reviewers aren’t asked this; and neither are concert violinists, though, in my opinion, there is nothing more autobiographical than a book review or a violin solo. But because literature has always functioned as a means by which to figure out what’s happening to us, as well as what we think about it, fiction writers do get asked: “What is the relationship of this story/novel/play to the events of your own life (whatever they may be)?”
I do think that the proper relationship of a writer to his or her own life is similar to a cook with a cupboard. What that cook makes from what’s in the cupboard is not the same thing as what’s in the cupboard—and, of course, everyone understands that.
Share your reflections on this cupboard idea. Is what you write different from what’s in the cupboard? Do tell.
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