The first draft is all about freedom, and if loyalty is in question, it is only my loyalty to the characters and situations on the page. All the worries about where the material may have sprung from or what so-and-so might think can be dealt with later.
From Jill McCorkle
I like to think I put some of myself in every character.
For years, I felt I was a novelist, but now I know I can write short fiction.
Sometimes I do feel like I write the same story again and again. And for me, I am always looking for a place with a kind of redemption.
By the time I sit down ready to write, I've done a lot of longhand and a lot of note collecting along the way.
One day, when my son was eight, he came into the kitchen while I was cooking and said: 'You put bad words in your books, don't you?' No doubt he had overheard my mother, who often tells people who ask about my work: 'Well, you'll never find her books in the Christian bookstore.'
Humor - I see it as a survival skill.
You want to feel that your reader does identify with the characters so that there's a real entry into the story - that some quality speaks to the individual.
I think too many people edit themselves way too soon. There's plenty of time to edit, and it is a crucial part of it all, too.
I am very interested in that fine line between fiction and reality and between comedy and tragedy - and pushing the line as much as possible.
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