The Novelry Blog

This is one of the most common questions I'm asked.

Here's the answer.

Yes. But don't make it about yourself.

“All fiction is largely autobiographical and much autobiography is, of course, fiction.” P.D. James.

“It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there's not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“The Coetzee who emerges from an informed reading of his papers is very different author from the one we thought we knew. Most surprisingly, his writing process turns out to be highly autobiographical, at least in its points of departure. It then involves a gradual, but determined process of writing himself out of the narratives, a ‘burning off of the self’ as it were.” David Attwell.

A novel starts with you, yourself, and ends without you.

Why? And how?

Writing is, and I'm not ashamed to say it, the...