Honesty?

I came across a this article at the Wordplay blog this afternoon.  It reminded me of an article Brad R Torgersen wrote the other day about writing honestly.

I’ve read similar advice about writing honestly in many other places.  But I hadn’t really thought about it much before.  These two articles got me thinking, though.

Call me a Philistine, but I have no idea what it means to “write honestly”.  Does that mean writing the story as you envision it, and not trying to tailor it to some pre-conceived marketplace, or what you think people want to read?  Brad’s piece seems to imply it means not trying to fool the audience, not treating them like idiots.  But is there more than that?

I like to think I’m a pretty honest guy.  My mother-in-law tells me that’s why she likes me: you may not like it, but you always know where I stand on an issue.  So I assume that translates into my writing.  But it’s not like I sit around pontificating, trying to reach down into the depths of my soul to uncover some deep truths that I must convey with my stories.  I come up with something I think is neat and type it down.  Not that many somethings, so far, but the stack is slowly growing.  Does it need to be any more than that?

Maybe I’m over-thinking it.