Alan Greenblatt is a GOVERNING correspondent.
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Cliche Watch
Time magazine writers this week prove the importance of writing about what you know -- even if what you know is only a cliche.
Reviewing the two new SNL backstage shows, James Poniewozik writes that NBC's president wanted Tina Fey to use "the news setting as a fig leaf for her own experience and encouraged her to write what she knew."
Aaron Sorkin's show also bears some autobiographical traces, says Poniewozik (love typing that name), and so he "is also writing what he knows."
Two pages later, Richard Lacayo opens his review of a new novel thusly: "Alice McDermott is one of those writers who take seriously the injunction to write about what you know."
McDermott should try to get a job at Time.
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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