“A good short-story writer has an instinct for sketching in just enough background to ground the specific story.” WritingEnoughStoriesInstinctIntuitionBackgroundsShort StorySketchingStory Writers Author:Lynn Abbey
“I think my prose reads as if English were my second language. By the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I'm dodging bullets and gasping for breath.” IfsThinkingWritingEndsLiteratureLanguageBreathsProseBulletsParagraphDodging Bullets Author:Lynn Abbey
“For me, writing a short story is much, much harder than writing a novel.” WritingStoriesNovelHarderShort Story Author:Lynn Abbey
“I write sets of books, but I've also written a lot of orphans.” WritingBookWrittenOrphan Author:Lynn Abbey
“I'm one of those writers who, when writing, believes she's god-and that she hasn't bestowed free will on any of her characters. In that sense there are no surprises in any of my books.” WritingBelieveBookCharacterSurpriseFree Will Author:Lynn Abbey
“Short-story writing requires an exquisite sense of balance. Novelists, frankly, can get away with more. A novel can have a dull spot or two, because the reader has made a different commitment.” WritingMadeTwoDifferentStoriesNovelReaderBalanceCommitmentSpotsNovelistsDullGet AwayShort StoryExquisiteStory Writing Author:Lynn Abbey
“I've read short stories that are as dense as a 19th century novel and novels that really are short stories filled with a lot of helium.” WritingStoriesLiteratureNovelCenturyFilledShort Story19th CenturyDenseHelium Author:Lynn Abbey
“My writing has to support more than my research habit, but I love to curl up with a book about some dusty corner of history.” WritingBookSupportHabitResearchCornersCurls Author:Lynn Abbey
“When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroidery. When I'm not plunging into the past, tweaking, or embroidering, I'm reading books about history, computers, or embroidery.” WritingBookPastReadingComputerReading BooksEmbroidery Author:Lynn Abbey
“If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, if you write, you know how pointless a question this is and how difficult it is to answer.” IfsKnowsWritingTryingIdeasLiteratureDifficultAnswersKnow HowPointlessAlways Trying Author:Lynn Abbey
“That bedrock faith that I could write was what blinded me to attempts to discourage me.” WritingDiscouragingBlindedBedrock Author:Lynn Abbey
