Lan Samantha Chang

Lan Samantha Chang is an award winning fiction writer (All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, Hunger) and teaches at the prestigious University of Iowa's Iowa's Writer's Workshop. Here are some things she has to say on writing fiction.

Fiction is a focus on things in the world.

Writing is a construction of identity.

Take details and turn them into something more. For example, a lady could be wearing a leopard spotted jacket because her personality is predator-like. 

Defy conventional logic. Literature is an un-quantifiable, making writing an irrational practice.

Writing fiction helps us learn to love others and not just ourselves. The development of compassion, and the ability to see others and feel for them, is the fiction writer's art; and this is what art has to be about. The practice of the fiction writer's art is learning to see outside themselves, seeing beyond the self.

Don't be afraid to interact with everyone from all cultures, religions and beliefs, etc. etc. These interactions bring more facets of the human experience into your fiction. For example, acknowledge that humans have spiritual experiences that drive and motivate them.