“We have to give our poor, innocent, and undeserving-of-our-badness characters trouble in order to make them characters in a story.” GivingCharacterStoriesOrderPoorTroubleInnocentBadnessUndeserving Author:Alice Mattison
“I began to see, again and again, stories that were first confusing and second where the emotional impact was muted because the big scene came before the explanation of what was going on. There was a reverse chronological order as well as a concealment of what exactly was going on. I think often that comes out of the fear of being boring, and sometimes I think it's just an attempt to seem clever.” ThinkingFirstsWellsSometimesStoriesBigsSeemsOrderEmotionalSceneImpactBoringCleverExplanationAgain And AgainReverseConfusingConcealment Author:Alice Mattison
“If you have a character stand up and put on her shoes and open the door, in order to do that, you're imagining her shoes and her clothes and her house and her door. The character becomes more real. But once you've done that, you can probably just get it all across with a couple of details.” IfsRealDoneCharacterOrderHouseDoorsCoupleClothesShoesDetails Author:Alice Mattison
“For some people, it's very easy to be spontaneous and they can pour out the most wonderful stuff. But it's really hard to exert control over it, to think, 'Well, this could be different. This could go in the opposite order, there could be more here and less there.' For other people, it's much easier to have rules and a methodology, but much harder to let loose and allow their feelings to come pouring out on the page. They're more shy or they're just more distant from their emotions. I think everybody starts with one or the other.” PeopleThinkingWellsDifferentHardFeelingsOrderEasyStuffEmotionWonderfulEasierPagesOppositesHarderShyOver ItSpontaneousPouringMethodologyBe Spontaneous Author:Alice Mattison