On Fiction: An Overlooked Reminder

Not that the reminder is overlooked, but that the thing I am reminding you of is overlooked I find more than a drop of coffee passes the lips of your's truly: a thing has to be itself.

Case 1: If you write about an artist, that person should art. They should make something. They should make something arty. If you spend half a novel having an artist running around and never once at least comment on the shape of a piece laying in the trash you might as well be writing about a politician.

Case 2: A Comedian should be funny. Even melancholy comedians should at least have been funny at one time, or they need to so mammothly depressing that they play it up for laughs. If you sum up the past of a comic writer in 3.5 pages and there isn't a joke on the page I don't believe that person was actually a comedian.