Topic: People and Stories

10-second review: The sources for stories are all around you, as writers. Tom Clancy.

Quote: “Every person you meet—and everything you do in life is an opportunity to learn something. That’s important to all of us, but most of all to a writer because as a writer you can use anything. There is not a person in the world who does not love to talk about himself and his job ; who does not deem himself fascinating; who cannot tell you hours’ worth of stories about the exciting life of an insurance agent, real-estate broker, garbage collector or preschool teacher. And they are all right. All people are interesting, and this is particularly true if you are writing a story about insurance, real estate, trash or a day-care center. From those people you will get information, and from their information you get verisimilitude, and verisimilitude is what makes fiction work. I never even got aboard a nuclear sub until Red October was in final editing. On the other hand, I have talked with a lot of people who are or were in this line of work.” Tom Clancy. October 1987,p. 146.

Title: The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing. Thomas Clark, ed., et al. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.