Friday, February 14, 2025

Good advice not taken

I’m fascinated by how writers work, so I rejoiced when I saw Elisabeth Egan’s interview with Anne Tyler. This line set off alarms:

 

You must resist the urge to keep scraps and work them up into something else. Kiss of death.

 

I’m a saver of scraps, found items, spare parts. If I cut material from one piece of writing, I toss it into the salvage yard. I rummage through it occasionally when I’m looking for inspiration and thinking about new projects.

That “kiss of death” stopped me in my tracks. But it didn’t stop me from keeping scraps.

I’m convinced no two writers work alike or could work alike. It’s not possible.

• Source: Elisabeth Egan, “At 83 Anne Tyler Has a New Novel. She’d Rather Talk About Anything Else.” The New York Times, Feb. 10, 2025. It’s here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/books/three-days-in-june-anne-tyler.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

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