April Meeting | Writing Out of the Cave

Writing Out of the Cave

Write what you know. How do you know what you know? You read a story and say, “That would never happen,” or “A lawyer wouldn’t proceed that way.” Why did the Writer use details you don’t accept as Reality? A Writer writes a story based on his/her Shadows of Reality. The reader approaches a tale from his/her Shadows of Reality. The twain don’t always jive. “Writing Out of the Cave” uses Plato’s “The Cave” to explain how a Writer creates a Third Shadow of Reality by imbuing elements from the Writer’s and the Reader’s separate Shadows of Reality.

Author Bio

LMG Swain has been a teacher for 40 years and a published author for 30 years. He teaches Classical and Ancient Literature as well as Creative Writing and Guitar. His publications include several short stories, both magazine and online, and 15 novels, three of which are self-published. He created and wrote the Universal Monster series for Scholastic and Universal Studios, helped create Map Monsters (a British publication), is one of the contributors to the RollerCoaster Tycoon books, and ghostwrote many of the Hardy Boys CaseFiles Mysteries, as well as one of the Nancy Drew-Hardy Boys SuperMysteries. He is an active member of OWFI, RMFW, SCBWI, HWA, SFWA, and MWA. He goes by Mike, or you can call him TaleRider, as he tells tales and rides a 2008 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic, especially to writers’ workshops and conferences.