It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?
Interpretation
The impact of a story is more important than its factual accuracy.
Arthur Conan Doyle emphasizes the idea that the emotional or dramatic effect of a narrative is more valuable than achieving meticulous accuracy in details. He acknowledges his own oversights in accuracy but argues that the ability to engage and captivate readers is what ultimately matters in storytelling.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to emphasize the importance of storytelling over accuracy.
I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.
You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged.
It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.
One dumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell. Picture to yourself the unilateral development - the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!
I wanted to be in a punk band before I had even heard any punk music.
What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.
I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections, Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling, Or just after.
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.
I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful.
The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of our people.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.