authenticity

[LitNet!]

Like American author Horatio Alger, Joseph Altsheler was also a popular writer of juvenile adventure books in the early 20th century. Many of his fictional works feature Henry Ware and are based on historical events. Altsheler wrote stories after being stranded in Germany when World War I broke out, such as The Forest of Swords (1915). How important is it to write of one's own experiences? do we really need to have gone through hell and back to write about it? are first-hand accounts better than fictionalised ones?

[TRIGGERSIDEWYS]

[Quote]The category of literature, drama, film, or other creative work whose content is imagined and is not necessarily based on fact.[\QUOTE]

I think that an authors best work isn't there first published. It always interests me what the very first book or network of books made the author.
I wouldn't write about things that seem less of an interest.

[kev67]

Like American author Horatio Alger, Joseph Altsheler was also a popular writer of juvenile adventure books in the early 20th century. Many of his fictional works feature Henry Ware and are based on historical events. Altsheler wrote stories after being stranded in Germany when World War I broke out, such as The Forest of Swords (1915). How important is it to write of one's own experiences? do we really need to have gone through hell and back to write about it? are first-hand accounts better than fictionalised ones?

Fact can be stranger than fiction. Some things that happen in real life just could not be imagined. Feelings and speech is likely to be more authentic in fiction based on real experiences. It is difficult to imagine how people would behave in extraordinary circumstances. Moreover, the characters involved behave differently to you and people like you. Sometimes I have read a section in a novel and knew that scene must have happened in real life, just a bit dressed up perhaps.