I Think Writers Worry That You Might

If You Try To Control It Too Much, The Book Is Dead. You Have To Let It Fall Apart Quite Early On And Let It Start Doing Its Own Thing. And That Takes Nerve, Not To Panic That The Book You Were Going To Write Is Not The Book You Will Have At The End Of The Day.

Naming Is Nice. It Took Me Days Before I Was Able To Speak A Name For My First Child (what If People Did Not Like It?), And I Suspect We Gave Her A Secret, Second Name As Well, To Keep Her Safe.

I Do Not Believe In Evil- I Believe That We Are Human And Fallible, That We Things And Spoil Them In An Ordinary Way.

Story Is About Pulling The Reader In And A Plot Is A More Externalized Mechanism Of Revelation. A Plot Is More Antic, More Performative, And Less Intimate. When You're Telling A Story You're Telling It Into Someone's Ear.

Imagine That You Are Dying. If You Had A Terminal Disease Would You ­finish This Book? Why Not? The Thing That Annoys This 10-weeks-to-live Self Is The Thing That Is Wrong With The Book. So Change It. Stop Arguing With Yourself. Change It. See? Easy. And No One Had To Die.