I recently came across an essay by Raymond Carver that originally appeared in the New York Times Book Review in 1981. Among other things, Carver discusses writing habits and his decision to focus his work on the short story.
I found Carver's thoughts on the creation of short story ideas particularly interesting. He quotes Flannery O'Connor, who famously stated in an essay that she most often did not know where she was going when she sat down to work on a short story.
To my surprise, Carver was shocked to find that O'Connor wrote stories in that fashion:
When I read this some years ago it came as a shock that she, or anyone for that matter, wrote stories in this fashion. I thought this was my uncomfortable secret, and I was a little uneasy with it. For sure I thought this way of working on a short story somehow revealed my own shortcomings. I remember being tremendously heartened by what she had to say on the subject.
As a fiction writing newbie, I've struggled mightily over this issue. I felt certain that any writer worth their salt, especially master storytellers like O'Connor, knew exactly what they wanted out of a story before putting pen to paper. And this news is as heartening to me as it seems to have been to Carver.
How about you? Do your stories spring forth from your mind fully formed? Or do your writing habits more closely mimic those of O'Connor and Carver: writing until the story reveals itself? Let me know what you think!
Read the entire Raymond Carver article at Story.
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