​​​Writers on Writing
​Nonfiction

The ABC's of Writing Fiction
​by Michèle Praeger
There are only 26 letters in the Roman alphabet.

With these austere markers, Balzac created the clay from which he molded prostitutes, duchesses, merchants, bandits, Parisians, and provincials. Marcel Proust conjured up Lost Time from his most immediate experiences. Nabokov wrote Lolita from the point of view of a child molester.

Voltaire composed with a goose feather, by the light of a candle at his mistresses’ castles; Sartre and de Beauvoir wrote in cafés with fountain pens; Kerouac typed On the Road on a typewriter on one long sheet of paper. The Marquis de Sade wrote in his own blood on the walls of his cell in the Bastille.

Words are symbols which represent objects or concepts. Yet, I use these abstractions to recreate a very concrete world. I conjure up the angry and hungry ghosts who haunt me and put obstacles in my way. I practice exorcisms on them. I order them about, rearrange them in bizarre configurations. I am a master puppeteer; words obey every one of my whims and desires. The world of dreams put to work in words.

It is said that you should write what you know; writing what you don’t know turns you into a true creator. It is a way to familiarize yourself with what you are not, to put yourself into somebody else’s shoes: a peasant of the Middle Ages in Romania, a dancer in the San Francisco ballet, a detainee at Guantanamo Bay Prison, a cat at night in the Coliseum, or a blade of grass in a Swedish field.

Writing what you don’t know gets you out of your skin, makes you consider other possibilities, other ways of life, which you couldn’t fathom if you didn’t stray from what was familiar to you.

To become what you are not through the magic of the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet.
About Michèle Praeger
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​Michèle Praeger was born in England and brought up in France. Now she resides in the USA. She wrote two essays on fiction and culture. Now she writes fiction herself.  ​Michèle was published in 11 Voices and recently published a collection of flash fiction, Baby, You Can Drive My Car, Blue Light Press, 2015.
Other works by Michèle in this issue: 
​Has Any Writer Ever Had a Happy Childhood?​ (Nonfiction)
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​The Vistas & Byways Review is the semiannual journal of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual arts by members of OLLI at SF State.
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​The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University​ provides material support to the Vistas & Byways volunteer staff.