I don't like to hurt people's feelings, and I don't like to knock other writers as a matter of principle.
From Lydia Davis
I've gotten very alert not just to mixed metaphor but to any writing mistake.
I see people sometimes who remind me of my narrators.
I follow my interests pretty - I don't like the word 'intuitively.' I follow them in a kind of natural way, without questioning them too much.
I think I have a sense right in the beginning of how big an idea it is and how much room it needs, and, almost more importantly, how long it would sustain anybody's interest.
I find teaching - I like it, but I find just walking into the classroom and facing the students very difficult.
I always interrupt work with other work, either in a small way or big way, so that's normal.
All of the little entries in 'The Cows' were written in an irregular way. There might be one or two done one day, and then two weeks might go by or four weeks, and then they were put in an order or sequence.
Ordering is difficult. It's like arranging pieces of music in a concert: What do you put first? What do you put after the intermission? I want the reader to be sort of surprised, to come to each story freshly.
Collections aren't really planned. I just keep writing short pieces until I have enough for a collection.
6 perspectives
5 perspectives
4 perspectives
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives