- Landing the big fish in 2010?
Not that we already need to feel consoled, so early into the new year, but something about this I found both cheering and verging on depressing:
I believe a good story writer is a generous story writer, generous in a sort of maniacal, foaming-at-the-mouth, Dr. Frankenstein way. A good story writer expends more than is expected--more than, perhaps seems possible. She pours the full force of her intellect and energy into every paragraph, every dead end, every false start. --Anthony Doerr in O. Henry Prize Stories 2009
We talked about this in the advanced short story class last night, because I think I'm especially good at those last two items--the dead ends and false starts. But aren't we all, ultimately? Maybe we should embrace more dead ends and false starts in 2010, all the better to perhaps land a perfect catch? And by perfect catch, you know I mean "almost bearable story." I don't ask for more! In any case, I thank Doerr for his insight, and also for this one:
"And I believe the magic of a good short story comes from the compression of so many days of thought--a thousand afternoons of its writer thinking on things, wrestling with problems, noticing how light falls through leaves, or how a man wipes his glasses with a thumb and forefinger--compressing all those tens of thousands of hours into a space that can be experienced by a reader in an hour or so."
See? As William Haywood Henderson is fond of saying, "It's easy!"
--AED
