“You don't really have a story until you discover the moment when the pressures on a character force a sudden, abrupt shift in direction and she falls through the net that has so far held her in place.” MomentsCharacterStoriesFallForcePressure Author:Catherine Brady
“What I've found as I have kept writing stories is that more and more your way is barred. I feel really choked by what I already know how to do, by the fact that my obsessions nearly always mount a sneak attack, so that I find myself writing another version of the same thing.” KnowsWayFeelsWritingFactsStoriesFoundKnow HowVersionsObsessionSneakWriting Stories Author:Catherine Brady
“I have to trick myself into writing a story - impose some arbitrary constraint to distract me from the constraints of my past habits or my fear that I don't have much to say.” WritingStoriesPastHabitTricksArbitraryConstraintsMy Past Author:Catherine Brady
“I wanted to let form lead my thinking, and repetition always confronts you with the interesting problem of how to break out of a cycle that seems so deterministic, which was germane to the story's concerns.” ThinkingStoriesProblemSeemsWantedFormInterestingBreakConcernCyclesRepetitionBreak Out Author:Catherine Brady
“Chekhov used to correspond with aspiring writers, and once he gave this advice to Maxim Gorky when he was encouraging him to pare his wordy sentences: "When someone expends the least amount of motion on a given action, that's grace." The short story, by definition, embodies this notion of grace, because it requires such forceful compression to achieve its effects.” StoriesActionUsedGivenGraceAchieveAdviceEffectsAmountNotionDefinitionsSentencesShort StoryMaximsChekhovAspiring WritersCompression Author:Catherine Brady
“I love the way a story's ending can force you to read backwards. It's as if you are slowly adjusting a kaleidoscope until a random scattering of colored crystals suddenly falls into a beautiful symmetrical pattern.” IfsWayStoriesBeautifulFallForcePatternsBackwardsCrystalsAdjustingKaleidoscopeSymmetrical Author:Catherine Brady