Mark Saha
Nothing is more inspiring than stumbling upon a story that speaks to you and demands to be put on paper. It’s such a fine day when something like that happens, and you can’t take anything else in life too seriously until the tale is accomplished in a manner worthy of the material.
The hardest kind of writing is when you don’t have anything like that at hand, but feel obligated to turn out something for the sake of being productive. Contriving a piece for formula fiction is for me as tedious as typing up a draft of the dictionary.
The trick, I suppose, when confronted with the task of executing a contrivance, is to seek some important theme about which you can use the story to make an original statement.
The hardest kind of writing is when you don’t have anything like that at hand, but feel obligated to turn out something for the sake of being productive. Contriving a piece for formula fiction is for me as tedious as typing up a draft of the dictionary.
The trick, I suppose, when confronted with the task of executing a contrivance, is to seek some important theme about which you can use the story to make an original statement.
More Answered Questions
Dennis Fried
asked
Mark Saha:
Thanks for the reply, Mark. Bill's forte was creating characters, and he was quite one himself! We lost him about five years ago. He had been saying for a few years, "I'm ready to go," and I guess he finally really was. And I've just been told as I attempted to send this that "Sorry, you question needs to contain a question mark." Oh, boy. Okay, here? Best, Denny
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more