Dear Reader
If you’ll forgive a slightly clumsy neologism, we’re keeping it real in Writing Magazine this month. Although the very definition of what we do is pretty much ‘making stuff up’, the real world, and conveying it accurately, is fundamentally important to us as writers. So, exploring reality from all angles, we’re considering what ‘real’ actually means in fiction and whether there are still any entirely taboo topics, how to use real life experiences to inspire your fiction (and avoid upsetting your friends and family!), and how to balance the self-belief needed to make it in a competitive industry with the knowledge that so few do.
Meanwhile, on a textual level, we’re helping you make your fiction more real with advice on carrying readers along on your emotional rollercoaster and creating vivid, immersive description, and learning from one of the current literary scene’s most effective and down-to-earth storytellers, Lisa McInerney, who draws on her experience and surroundings in working class Ireland for her award-winning fiction.