Knowing and Stories

So, out of the latest go-rounds about writing sensitive issues and writing what one knows have come the following thoughts. In many ways, this little coda only brings a few high points back around, but, then, most good discussions run in spirals. And I did want to toss an extra point or two out for consideration.

( Cut for length )

In the manner proper to a spiral, let me end someplace different. When we write a story, we make a world, be it full-bodied or barely sketched. Sometimes it's only for ourselves; sometimes it goes further than that. Any story, good or bad by whatever measure, is a transformation. I do not think that responsibility to one's story, to oneself, and to one's readers are really seperate things, despite having dealt with them separately above. The meaning of the transformation is something we, writers and readers and history, make together. It serves nothing, even simple enjoyment, to forget or ignore that.