How to Become a Writer

Verisimilitude refers to the semblance of truth or reality in a literary work. “How to Become a Writer” creates a strong sense of reality but also plays with the concept of verisimilitude, revealing it to be a construct and drawing attention to it as part of the writer’s literary toolkit. The setting, detail, description, and style of the text all strongly follow the conventions of literary realism. Frankie’s world is a recognizably mundane one and the method in which her experiences are described is direct, chronological, and approachable. There is realistic dialogue presented in the conventional way. These elements all create a firm grounding of verisimilitude and a sense that the story the narrator tells is “true.” Moore adapts this convention, however: her narrator feels very much like the traditional omniscient narrator of literary realism but the structure of her story relies on its blend of the second person imperative with richly detailed indicative mood: “Begin to wonder what you do write about” (10). The use of the second person is unusual in literature, and it creates unique effects, most especially an intimate, conversational