Tobias Wolff Interview: Story Structure and Possibility

I recently found an old Tobias Wolff interview that originally appeared in the Paris Review in 2003, just after the publication of his novel Old School. In the interview, Wolff, most noted for his short stories, discusses his novel as well as his thoughts on short story writing, the teaching of writing, and his personal writing habits.

While discussing Chekhov, Wolff provides his take on what he feels is the most troubling sin of many writers:

I think the most besetting vice of most writers is a programmatic intention, making a story like an algebra equation with a solution at the end. Chekhov gives another model of conclusiveness—that conclusiveness inhabits the whole body of the story, not just the ending. That every good story expresses inevitability in all its parts, and yet is not foreclosed, shut down at the last word. A good story somehow continues in a shimmer of possibility.

I must admit that in the infancy of my fiction writing, I’ve often looked at the structure of a short story as some sort of complex formula with a predetermined solution, bemoaning my own shortcomings and inabilities as a literary mathematician.

But Wolff’s comments struck a chord in me. After reading this, I’ve found myself rereading short stories with a renewed, optimistic sense of purpose. And I’ve begun the arduous task of looking at my own work, attempting to avoid this same pitfall that’s plagued me in the past.

What about you—are you guilty of this same way of viewing story structure? Is there another, greater writing mistake you feel many writers make? Let me know!