How Did It Really Happen?

By Tamara Dean

A “vivid and continuous dream” wrote the late John Gardner, author of The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist, is the type of narrative that readers find captivating and memorable. But a “vivid and continuous dream” is the subjective result of an author’s efforts. How do we craft such an ever-dazzling trance?

With honesty. Commit to seeking the truth doggedly, unimpeded by judgment or fear. Writing more honestly isn’t about a moral fidelity to the truth, although th...