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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25324
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25324
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think it is important to remember that fiction is not primarily a matter or invention but of observation. You are not creating new stories or new characters, you are discovering story and character in nature and sharing them through storytelling.

If you discover character in nature, then your reader can recognize character in your stories because they too have observed character all their lives. Then it only takes a few brushstrokes to establish character vividly because you are relying almost entirely on the reader's recognition and memory. Pull out the right poignant and telling detail to evoke the memory of character and your reader immediately has a fond and vivid reaction based on people they have known of similar character.

Almost any book would suffice to illustrate this, but take the opening dialogue of Pride and Prejudice and see how deftly the character of Mr Bennet is established by his gentle teasing of Mrs Bennet as she tries to persuade him to all on their new neighbour. In a few words, Mr. Bennet stands before us whole because we remember such affectionate teasing between man and wife (or between parent and child, or between siblings or friends). We know that guy. We remember him. You create a sense of character through an appeal to memory.

This is true across the board. Storytelling works through the invocation of memory. It does not create new sensations or emotions; it recalls to mind sensations and emotions that the reader has already had. If it builds new landscapes, it does so using pieces of the old. If it is truly skillful, it refines and concentrates sensations and emotions it a way that may feel new or more vivid than life, but it is all life recalled.

This is also, by the way, why we have to keep retelling the old stories: to recast them the the framework of memory of a new generation.

Original score: 2