On Writing

“I love that line from E.L. Doctorow: ‘Writing a novel is like driving at night. You can only see as far as your headlights — ” but you keep going until you get there. I’ve learned over the years to just report back anything that I see in front of the headlights: Are they yellow stripes or white? What’s on the side of the road? Is there vegetation? What kind? What’s the weather? What are the sounds? If I capture the experience all along the way, the structure starts to reveal itself. My guiding force and principle for shaping the story is to just follow the headlights. That’s how the architecture is revealed.

— Andre Dubus III

From AdviceToWriters

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