The Plot

My friend Tessa Williamson gave me a copy of The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz, and I am plowing through it. It is the best fictional work I’ve ever read on the topic of writing, but with suspense and a quickly evolving plot. In fact, even though it is fiction, it shares some deep truths about writing.

Here’s my favorite part so far:

The word that comprised the relationship between a writer their spark was “responsibility.” Once you were in possession of an actual idea, you owed it a debt for having chosen you, and not some other writer, and you paid that debt by betting down to work, not just as a journeyman fabricator of sentences but as an unshrinking artist ready to make painful, time-consuming, even self-flagellating mistakes…

It goes on, but I’ll eave you there. If you’re a writer (and I assume you are if you’re reading my blog) You really should get yourself a copy. You can thank me later.