“Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing. Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.”
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“The best stories are the ones with the unexpected plot twists that no one would have guessed, even the writer.”
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“The first draft reveals the art; revision reveals the artist.”
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“There's an old rule of theater that goes, 'If there's a gun on the mantel in Act I, it must go off in Act III.' The reverse is also true.”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Suzanne’s 2025 Year in Books
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