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Quote by Debra Dean

“Whatever one may say about the perils of workshops, they help writers internalize an awareness of audience.”

Quote by Debra Dean

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Debra Dean is a renowned author known for her unique writing style and deeply engaging themes. more

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“I loved short stories, and they were all I wanted to write. I love the compression of them and the exactitude needed to get a whole world into such a small space.”

World Writing Whole Stories Wanted Space Needed Whole World Short Story Small Spaces Compression Exactitude

Author:Debra Dean

“I think I was also afraid of the novel. I write line by line, proceeding at snail's pace, rewriting as I go and paring the excess away. This is against all the best advice for writing long form prose, and I have tried over the years to break myself of the habit, but I can't bear to leave anything ungainly on the page and half the fun for me is that tinkering. So the length of a novel was a daunting prospect.”

Thinking Writing Years Long I Can Form Fun Lines Half Break Novel Advice Bears Habit Pages Prose Length Pace Excess Proceeding Best Advice All The Best Rewriting Snail Tinkering

Author:Debra Dean

“I kept writing short stories and sending out my manuscript, and it kept coming back like a bad penny. It was rejected all over town, quite often in very complimentary terms, but rejected nonetheless. Agents would return it saying that they loved it but didn't think they could sell it, or they would ask if I could change the collection into linked stories.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Stories Asks Term Return Towns Sells Agents If I Could Collections Short Story Rejected Linked Coming Back Pennies Manuscripts Writing Short Writing Short Stories

Author:Debra Dean

“Once I had started, I discovered the secret pleasure of writing a novel. It's such an immersive, deep commitment. With short stories, you're continually having to start again from scratch, but with a novel you only need one good idea every few years.”

Needs Writing Years Ideas Stories Pleasure Secret Novel Commitment Short Story Good Ideas Scratches

Author:Debra Dean

“The trajectory of my writing has moved further and further away from autobiography. My first stories in Confessions of a Falling Woman worked familiar territory - places I had lived, people I knew, my life as an actor in New York - and many were prompted by or grounded in personal experience.”

People Writing Firsts Stories Fall Actors New York Moved Familiar Territory Confession Autobiography Grounded Personal Experiences Trajectory

Author:Debra Dean

“If you had told me twenty years ago that I would write a novel set in Russia, much less two, I simply wouldn't have believed you. I had no familiarity with Russia or its history, but part of what drives me as a reader, and more and more as a writer, is curiosity, the desire to explore unfamiliar terrain and inhabit alternate lives.”

Ifs Writing Years Two Desire Novel Reader Years Ago Twenties Curiosity Russia Familiarity Unfamiliar Terrain

Author:Debra Dean

“With the historical fictions, I was already doing so much research, and so much of the stories was anchored by historical truth that the move to nonfiction didn't feel all that dramatic - just another half-step to the right.”

Feels Stories Moving Half Fiction Steps Research Historical Dramatic Historical Fiction Nonfiction Historical Truth

Author:Debra Dean

“If anything, I've found nonfiction a little easier. You don't have to make anything up. Of course, that's the inherent difficulty as well: when you hit an information black hole, you don't get to make it up. That hasn't come up too often with this project though. I'm lucky to have tons of primary source material , reams of letters and diaries and memoirs.”

Ifs Wells Littles Courses Found Black Information Materials Source Easier Lucky Projects Letters Difficulty Come Up Holes Memoir Primaries Nonfiction Inherent Diaries Black Hole Primary Source

Author:Debra Dean

“That requires quite an imaginative leap because it's hard for me to imagine that my biography would be of much interest to anyone, and because I'm a fairly private person, the notion doesn't appeal to me.”

Persons Hard Would Be Interest Imagine Notion Appeals Leap Imagine That Biographies Imaginative My Biography

Author:Debra Dean

“One of the nice things about moving from acting to writing is that your work can be in the public eye without having to be in the public eye yourself. I guess that's not completely true. If you're lucky - and I have been - there are book tours and lectures. I don't have stage fright, and I enjoy meeting people, so that's easy and enjoyable, but it's not a constant, and it's not celebrity.”

People Ifs Writing Has Beens Book Eye Moving Easy Enjoy Acting Nice Stage Lucky Constant Meetings Lectures Enjoyable Nice Things Fright Public Eye Stage Fright

Author:Debra Dean