“Telling someone to be confident in the abstract is not going to make it easier for the unconfident writer to actually get herself or himself to the point of being able to put in the upsetting stuff.” AbleStuffEasierUpsetAbstractBe Confident Author:Alice Mattison
“I think a day in your life on which nothing bad happens may be a wonderful day, but it probably isn't going to be the basis of a story.” ThinkingMayStoriesHappensWonderfulBasesWonderful Day Author:Alice Mattison
“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 think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.” ThinkingKindCharacterTroubleHappeningsMetaphor Author:Alice Mattison
“The making of fiction takes literally what is suggested by our imagination.” ImaginationFiction Author:Alice Mattison
“When an editor first explained to me the difference between direct and indirect writing, I just thought it was a stylistic choice.” WritingFirstsChoicesDifferencesDirectEditorsIndirectDirect And Indirect 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
“Sometimes indirect style and varying chronology is great, but quite often I've seen it be just something that gets in the way. It turns out when I talk to the writer that she or he, and more often it's a woman, that she's worried.” WaySometimesTurnsStyleWorriedIndirectChronology Author:Alice Mattison
“I've been astonished how often, when I convince a writer to tell a story more straightforwardly and to tell it more simply and directly, it turns out that this author is great and the story is wonderful.” StoriesTurnsWonderfulConvince Author:Alice Mattison