Gabriel García Márquez’s writing has the depth and strength of childhood memories, his own. His infinitely captivating novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude It sparkles with prose so rich and nostalgic that you’ll think you’re remembering things instead of hearing them for the first time. What can you learn from this master of the art of fiction?

Have the courage to let your imagination run wild. García Márquez is a wonderful example of unbridled imagination. His ability to soar and fly with him will remind you of Ray Bradbury. The stories are amazing, but it attracts you because they are told in a masterly way. His grandmother was obviously a great storyteller. She used to tell fantastic stories, she says, “… but she told them quite naturally. She didn’t change her expression at all when she told her stories.” While your imagination flies, your feet must stay on the ground. “I discovered that what I had to do was believe in them and write them with the same expression my grandmother used to say: with a brick face.”

Make the place a character. Macondo grows from a small town of adobe houses by a river to a thriving settlement, and then falls and finally disappears. Successive generations of the Buendía family are the founding architects and main residents of the town. And what a city it is! A colorful progression of characters comes to this isolated place. Gypsy groups demonstrate fascinating trinkets and processes, Arabs with the latest inventions from around the world, settlers from Europe bringing their books full of classical culture, a two-hundred-year-old traveling minstrel named Francisco the Man, and more mingle with native tribes to make from the main street of Macondo a parade of delicacies.

Don’t be afraid of emotions when you write. In fact, emotion is absolutely necessary for good writing. You need a combination of mental processing that allows you to push through the story and strong feelings about what you are writing. If you don’t feel anything, neither will your reader. The first sentence of A hundred years It’s a good example. “Many years later, while facing the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was going to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover the ice.” Woof! You are in your eyes immediately. You feel distressed and want to know how he got into this situation. Then you feel the fascination of a little boy in a tropical town experiencing ice for the first time. You just have to know who this person is and what led him to this point. You are emotionally involved.

If you are a writer One Hundred Years of Solitude worth your time. We must point out that the book was written in Spanish. If you can read it in the original language, it will surely add to the experience. If you can’t read Spanish, Gregory Rabassa’s translation will work fine.

Happy reading and writing!