"I think many [newer] writers are told to “write what you know” because doing so inherently puts them in touch with the sort of deep struggles they’ve wrestled with—even though the fledging writer might immediately downgrade the importance of those struggles simply because they went through them, and feel such struggles aren’t “poetic” enough to justify being written about. But much good writing is about self-evaluation, self-observation. We simultaneously see ourselves in the world and see ourselves through the world. One must care deeply about what we write or else we won’t see deeply enough to make others care and see…"
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On what might be the typical mindset of a new writer in “Selling Short Story Short: An Interview with ZZ Packer” in Writer’s Digest (2011 Jul 20)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/ZZ_Packer
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ZZ Packer
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