Writing the way they think: Don’t ask novelists, “Is this autobiographical?” Ask “Is this a literary technique, or does it reflect the way your mind works?”

It is usually unproductive to ask novelists if things in their books are autobiographical, because the answer will depend on whether they take your question to address only their host personality or to include their alternate personalities, too.

For example, a fat character in a novel may not indicate that the author’s host personality ever had a weight problem, but that one of the author’s alternate personalities may have. So you might ask authors if something in their books is autobiographical for any of their personalities. However, I don’t know if novelists would treat the question as a joke or give an honest answer.

It might be better to ask if unusual features of their characters or stories—for example, “magical” aspects—are intentional literary techniques, or are, to some extent, the way the author thinks.

I have previously mentioned this issue. Search “experimental” to see prior posts. But it is worth repeating that most novelists write the way they do, not to make technical innovations, but because that is how they think.