Reflections of a working writer and reader
I try to make writers actually see what they have written, where the strength is. Usually in fiction there's something that leaps out - an image or a moment that is strong enough to center the story. If they can see it, they can exploit it, enhance it, and build a fiction that is subtle and new. I don't try to teach technique, because frankly most technical problems go away when a writer realizes where the life of a story lies. I don't see any reason in fine-tuning something that's essentially not going anywhere anyway. What they have to do first is interact in a serious way with what they're putting on a page. When people are fully engaged with what they're writing, a striking change occurs, a discipline of language and imagination. Marilynne Robinson
Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.
“Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance.”
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That quote could have been phrased a bit clearer. I think self-knowledge is a thing to be sought after personally. Too many of us only think we know ourselves. As the years go by and we get tested, only then do we start to see that our earlier estimations were far out.
True, Jim. On both counts. But the mountain remains, whatever part of it we manage or fail to scale.