George Saunders on REVISION and CAUSALITY
But it’s the hardest thing to learn. It doesn’t come naturally, not to most of us. But that’s really all a story is: a series of things that happen in sequence, in which we can discern a pattern of causality.
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
When I have a story that’s too long or feels aimless, I usually find that redundant scenes are part of the problem—like, two characters have the identical conversation two or three different times, with minor variations. As soon as I merge those scenes into one, everything immediately flows way better.
Charlie Jane Anders • Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories
That’s how I see revision: a chance for the writer’s intuition to assert itself over and over.
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
Early in a story, I’ll have a few discrete blocks (blobs? swaths?) of loose, sloppy text. As I revise, those blocks will start to . . . get better. Soon, a block will start working—I can get all the way through it without a needle drop. The word that sometimes comes to mind is “undeniable,” as in “All right, this bit is pretty much undeniable,” wh
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