Ten Ways of Being in the Weeds With Your Novel, and Ten Ways Out

The author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling counts the many ways a novelist may get lost, but ultimately find a way through, a book project.
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The author of The Boundaries of Their Dwelling counts the many ways a novelist may get lost, but ultimately find a way through, a book project.
“The more you write, the more there will be to write about—so you’ve just gotta cut it off at some point!” —Franny Choi, author of The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
“Fixed ideas are always problematic when it comes to writing fiction.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Signal Fires
The author of The White Mosque offers an ode to intertextuality.
“There’s space for your story.” —E. M. Tran, author of Daughters of the New Year
“Poetry is impossible, but it is not difficult.” —Olena Kalytiak Davis, author of Late Summer Ode
“I’m not a writer, I’m a receiver for something I don’t always understand.” —James Cagney, author of Martian: The Saint of Loneliness
“It takes a lot of intentional work to write ethical stories.” —Hafizah Augustus Geter, author of The Black Period: On Personhood, Race, and Origin
“I’d tell my past self to trust my work.” —Aldo Amparán, author of Brother Sleep
“A terrible draft of a story is a gift, because now the real work can begin.” —Jonathan Escoffery, author of If I Survive You