I was reading a review of a book written by a book critic on the art of writing.* The reviewer pulled a sentence from the book where the critic, James Woods, takes to task the idea that many writers apparently hold quite dear in that realistic fiction is too conventional. He says,

“Fiction does not ask us to believe things (in the philosophical sense) but to imagine them (in the artistic sense).”

I love that last part about asking the reader to imagine. Such a simple and yet daunting task.

There is so little imagination in day to day living.

How can we combat this? Comment or link back, s’il vous plait.

*That’s mainly what I do with highbrow “how to write” books. I read the reviews. When I buy them, they sit on the self. When I check them out of the library, I return them skimmed at best. Perhaps I need to pencil in a few weeks of reading about the art of writing? But I am booked through January with writing projects already.