How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

by Alexander Chee

And, of course, what was he thinking about? Which was only a way of hoping he thought about me.

that when left alone with nothing else to read, I began to tell myself the stories I wanted to read.

And there was the story I was living. Whatever I thought I was doing through my experiments in observation, I can see I was a boy losing himself as a way to find himself in the shapes of others.

I think few of us know enough about our lives to know our place in them — we can’t see ourselves as we might a character in a novel, with the same level of detachment and appraisal.

Whatever it is you want to do, find the person who does it best, and then see if they will teach you.