Write what you think is good, is the whole of the law. Darin Strauss More Quotes by Darin Strauss More Quotes From Darin Strauss For the fiction students I teach, one of the most common mistakes is to start in the wrong place. Often the actual story doesn't begin until about a third of the way into their narratives. They start off instead with excessive scene-setting, metaphysical speculation, introducing nonessential dramatis personae, throat-clearing, etc. Darin Strauss mistakesplacestartway I went to Aspen right after school and got a freelance gig writing articles for the 'Aspen Times.' I was their nightlife correspondent. They paid me fifty bucks an article. Darin Strauss rightmewritingschool I delivered Chinese food on Long island, which is pretty depressing. I lived with my parents and did that for six months. I got a job a few towns over from mine so I wouldn't have to see people from my high school. Darin Strauss parentsfoodlongpeople Not to be too 'Tale of Two Cities' about it, but I find writing a memoir easier than writing fiction, and more difficult. Darin Strauss findmoredifficultwriting The novelist has permission to do whatever she chooses to supercharge whatever's interesting in her story. This is also known as freedom. Darin Strauss shestoryfreedominteresting My training and my inclination is to invent. Darin Strauss inventinclinationtraining If you're guilty of something, you can focus on that, but if something terrible happens, and you can't imagine how you could have changed it, that's very difficult for the mind. In some ways, it's more difficult not to be at fault because it's a subtler thing. Darin Strauss youdifficultfocusmind Usually, as a fiction writer, you get e-mails saying, 'I liked your book,' or 'I didn't like it.' You don't get something saying, 'I'm really glad this is in the world.' Darin Strauss sayingyoubookworld When you write fiction, you have an ideal reader in your mind who's sort of you but smarter. Darin Strauss youryoumindfiction My first book is about twins who are attached: two people who are joined and can't escape each other. Darin Strauss two-peopleescapebookpeople You get a bad review with a novel, and it hurts. But I imagine if you get a bad review with a memoir, it hurts more because you can always say, 'Well, they didn't like my characters,' but when you're the character, it's like, 'Oh, yeah, they actually didn't like me.' Darin Strauss badmeyoucharacter I'm really wary of self-help books. Darin Strauss waryself-helpreallybooks It's a very performative thing, grief. As with so much in modern life, I think there's a whole performative layer to what we do because we feel like there's a private TV show viewing our lives. Darin Strauss feelthinkgrieflife Society isn't good at dealing with people who have something concrete to feel guilty about or who are dealing with a loss. Darin Strauss feelgoodsocietypeople V. S. Pritchett was one of the most admired, fun, talked-about writers of the 20th century: he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his work with prose. He was born in 1900, wrote till he died in 1997, and has been tidily forgotten ever since. This is a real shame. Darin Strauss queenbornworkfun You can work really hard and well on something, and someone you respect might hate it; worse, they're not empirically wrong for doing so. This is scary, especially for people who haven't been published. Darin Strauss yourespectworkpeople The starkest rejection letter might be followed by a million-dollar advance. Don't let rejection start to look the same as failure. Darin Strauss startlookrejectionfailure I've had menial jobs, and 'professional writer' isn't one of them. Darin Strauss themprofessionalwriterhad Constant rejection. No security. Career paths being dictated by freelance reviewers. And of course, the terror of the writing desk, of the blank page. Why is it so hard for our non-writer friends to understand this - that it's a job? Darin Strauss jobunderstandfriendsrejection
