Margaret Atwood was a coffee-shop worker. Octavia Butler labored as a dishwasher, a telemarketer, and a potato-chip inspector, among other endeavors. Agatha Christie was part of a Voluntary Aid Detachment working at a military hospital in Devon during World War I; she was also an apothecary’s assistant. Harper Lee toiled as a ticket agent for… Read more
Children’s Books
“What is a story? It is a form of authority. If I tell you a story, you are almost certain to listen. A story is easier to follow, and therefore to remember, than a chain of disconnected facts, because it has causality, one event leads to another. It is like swimming with the current —… Read more
Why Write
“The agony that goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer longs for acceptance.” – Ralph Ellison “The ascent of creative-writing, particularly in an age dominated by the impatient pursuit of visual stimulation, might seem harder to explain. But my sense is that people remain desperate for the emotional communion provided by literature.” –… Read more
Darkness
“If a book [that you’re writing] is too dark, it controls you.” – Akhil Sharma
Remainders
In Praise of Remainder Books Food that no one really wants to eat is called leftovers. Lengths of cloth that no one really wants to buy are called remnants. And books that no one really wants to read are called remainders.
Q&A: The Amsterdam Writing Workshops
1. What’s a good starting point for the workshops? Some people prefer to start with “Simply Writing,” because it’s all about being able to get the words out of your head and onto the page. Others prefer to get started with “The Short Story” or “Writing Nonfiction.” To discuss whether this class is right for… Read more
Editing
“What a good editor does is make your text the way you really would have wanted it to be if you had been doing it on your most disciplined, best day. It’s like Michelangelo looking at a piece of marble. There’s a shape inside it. And one of the ways to get that shape out… Read more
Control
“Sometimes it takes more courage to be the passenger than to be the driver.” – E. L. Konigsburg