Thoughts

I write a lot. Essays. Articles. Blog posts. All of them sharing what I’m thinking about. Maybe you think about these things, too.

Get Your Wheels on the Ground
About Fiction, About Your Writing Jeannette de Beauvoir About Fiction, About Your Writing Jeannette de Beauvoir

Get Your Wheels on the Ground

My first drafts are a mess. I have an occasionally faulty memory, and so nothing exists in my world until it’s written down. Because of that, I have all sorts of ideas I throw into the mix of a first draft. Some won’t stay the course. Some are frankly contradictory to other ideas I slammed down elsewhere in the manuscript. A few take on the glitter of inspiration and stay in place through publication.

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The Story's The Thing
About Fiction, About The World, Stranger Than Fiction Jeannette de Beauvoir About Fiction, About The World, Stranger Than Fiction Jeannette de Beauvoir

The Story's The Thing

 

I’m always talking about how the stories we tell and the stories we read or hear or view both reflect and shape who we are. Usually I’m talking about enlightenment—learning something about ourselves, delving into issues such as pain or love or agency. But sometimes, the stories teach us facts.

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Is Technology Leaving Readers Behind?
About The World, About Fiction, About Books Jeannette de Beauvoir About The World, About Fiction, About Books Jeannette de Beauvoir

Is Technology Leaving Readers Behind?

As writers, one of our obligations, I think, is to be the vehicle that enables readers to ask these questions in a safe fictional space. Raising the questions in fiction doesn’t make them any less real, or any less urgent, or any less difficult, but it serves the same function as fairytales and horror stories, the option of experiencing fears without also experiencing immediate and life-threatening danger.

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Is AI the Beginning or the End?

Is AI the Beginning or the End?

I’m not worried—yet. AI can’t do what I can do—yet. Computers can’t just create stories in a void; instead, they’re given a massive number of exemplars—works that are similar to what the computer is tasked to create—which is then broken down into data. AI reads the data using statistical algorithms to recognize patterns and relationships.

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Is Fiction a Lie?
About Fiction Jeannette de Beauvoir About Fiction Jeannette de Beauvoir

Is Fiction a Lie?

The fact that these truths are wrapped up in a story is what gives them power. It contextualizes them and shows, sometimes dramatically, what they mean to us.

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Lose Yourself in a Story—And Find Someone Else
About Fiction Jeannette de Beauvoir About Fiction Jeannette de Beauvoir

Lose Yourself in a Story—And Find Someone Else

So—read fiction. Read lots of fiction. Read about life on imagined planets and life in 12th-century France. Read about people who build castles and people who are driven to madness. Read about good people, broken people, strong people, evil people.

They’ll all make you a better person. Promise!

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