Do you ever stop reading and start to write? I’ve been
reading a lot of short story collections trying to stretch my writing--attempting
to see what’s new or different out there. Short stories are quicker to read than novels and the writing is often more
telling in short form than long.   
More telling: Tom Perrotta talks about point of view is
switched through many of the short stories in the preface to the 2012
edition of The Best American Short
Stories – and how this was radical 20 years ago and more going back— and
isn’t anymore. Big check off for me because I like to switch point of views a
lot in longer pieces (see LIE, my debut novel-10 points of view ) but didn’t do
it in the past, wasn’t it against some rule somewhere? But now I’ve tried it in
some new pieces – and it doesn’t hurt at all.  
Not new, uneven, but often exhilarating exploration of
character: The Book of Other People
edited by Zadie Smith. Outstanding
stories include: “Gideon” by ZZ Packer, heart-breaking, about a black-white
romance, and the hilarious stream-of-conscious ranting of Jewish grandmother to
her grandson in “Rhoda” by Jonathan Safran Foer  to the  story I
can’t shake from me: “Puppy” by George Saunders with its two different points
of views – two women at different ends of the economic divide and a disturbed
boy chained to a tree and a puppy. 
    
I’ll admit it. I can’t stop reading. I read to write. I am a
hard-core reader.  
Next story collection: Married
Love, by Tessa Hadley. What she says in the afterward resonated with this
reader-writer: “I used to be nervous if I didn’t ‘know enough.’ Now I trust, up
to a point, that the best part of “knowing” is imagining. If you can imagine
it, then you’ll probably be able to write it.”     
So here a few of my writing thoughts… notes… from reading
these short story collections.., 
1)  
the rule is there are no rules2)  
we all want something new3)  
even with no rules, wanting something new, we
still want what we’ve always wanted: story, a way into other people’s lives
because we can’t stand our own or a way into our lives to understand anything
at all. 4)  
At the end of day it’s you knowing that you can
trust yourself to       imagine and write. 
More thoughts on reading-writing out there?
Truly,Caroline