“But the real life of a writer resides in showing up at the keyboard every day, with the necessary patience and mercy, and making the best decisions you can on behalf of your people. It’s a slow process. It often feels hopeless, more like an affliction than an art form. Most of us will have to find our readers one by one, in other words, and against considerable resistance. If anything qualifies us as heroic, it’s that private perpetual struggle. Put down the magazine, soldier. Forget about the other guy. Remember who you are.” PeopleIfsFeelsWritingArtRealRememberFormGuyProcessDecisionForgetStruggleReaderMercyWho You AreSoldierReal LifeResistanceMagazinesHopelessHeroicPerpetualAfflictionBehalfOther GuysKeyboardsShowing UpRemember Who You Are Author:Steve Almond
“The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse.” WritingMadeReadingDecisionReaderNarrativeProsePoetry IsVersesBedtime Author:Robert Morgan
“I love the box that such a decision puts you in, and I love the interest the reader has in seeing how you negotiate that box: that seemingly hugely narrowed set of options. I also like the way in which it reminds us that we connect to the real world. That our relationship to the world matters.” WorldWayRealMatterInterestDecisionSeeingReaderBoxesReal WorldOur Relationship Author:Jim Shepard
“Now, as a reader, you shouldn't feel the decisions the writer makes about this DNA, or it would be boring beyond belief. But, as a writer, you're struggling to make these decisions. What should the title be? What's the first line? The point of view? And the struggle with the decisions is because you're trying to figure out WHAT IS THE NOVEL, WHAT IS THE NOVEL?” FeelsShouldTryingFirstsWould BeBeliefLinesDecisionViewsNovelStruggleFiguresReaderBoringPoint Of ViewTitlesDna Author:Mary Kay Zuravleff
“I feel that there is an alternate ending that leaps off too far into fantasy and there is an alternate ending that leaps off too far into pessimism, but that, in fact, the novel as it has developed should, if it's functioning correctly, have equipped you as the reader to make your own decision about where you want to go with that, about where you're going to fall on that continuum. So, the novel is taking you directly up to the point that you have to choose, and it's letting you do that.” IfsWantFeelsShouldFactsFallDecisionFantasyNovelReaderLeapPessimismContinuum Author:Emily Barton