the work

On a book tour for her first novel, a writer named Christine hears from the man who inspired it: a former painting professor who went from being her mentor to, briefly, her lover. After they slept together, he mostly stopped talking to her, and she quit painting. In her novel, she’s so angry that she kills him — in real life, she mostly just... See more

He’s unlikable, but he’s also the only person on the expedition who actually does anything. He always takes action. I set up, hopefully, the situation where the reader maybe doesn’t like him but they still are like, “Oh, he actually tried to do something!” That’s useful in terms of how we think of characterization, because we’re often led astray by... See more

When an agent, editor, or publisher says "fantasy" or "thriller" or "literature" or "general fiction" we're not making a deep textual analysis of the book. The question isn't one of themes or lineages or even particularly the aesthetic elements. The question is, "where the hell do we want them to put this in the bookstore?"

You didn’t know quite what you thought, and you didn’t know quite how to respond to the conversation you found yourself drawn into. Maybe it felt exciting; more likely, a bit embarrassing to be dumbstruck and tongue-tied. Now you have something—maybe preliminary, doubtless evolving, but recognizably your own contribution to an ineluctably social... See more

And the only way to practice is by doing. I spend a lot of time contemplating the approach. The systems I need in place before I can work. The desire for a perfect plan to execute the perfect result. I forget, too often, that simply doing the thing – flawed but finished – is what will lead me to my goals. Intention matters but only when paired with... See more

Have I been doomed by competence? What if I die a better administrator than an artist?

Thinking through —rather than just thinking—is important. A thought or an idea is never that precious. People have thoughts and ideas all the time, many of them preliminary. Sometimes people mistake their feelings for thoughts and ideas, which are in turn mistaken for absolute truths. The point of writing and reading fiction is not to stay with the... See more

In the back of my mind right now is the AI “art” worshippers’ conviction that process is an obstacle to creation instead of being the whole thing. Like: what if we just removed the work part? What if we just removed the effort? I think it’s quite beautiful that Louise Gluck would say writing never gets easier. It shouldn’t! Ease isn’t the point.

Molly: I will say, I do recommend that everyone try the non-chronological form of writing, even if it causes a lot of headaches in the post-production phase. For some people it can be helpful to write about what they’re most interested in at one particular moment, and then to figure out the chronology later.