Marilynne Robinson on Finding the Right Word
Marilynne Robinson has a short essay in today’s New York Times Book Review about—what does she know best?—the process of writing.
People always ask me why I often write about characters who have no name, and no place, and no money, and nothing else. Well, it’s in those circumstances that you can get real definitions of things and people and experience.
For the many of us who could not enjoy the privilege of being an actual student of Robinson, this taut little piece is steeped with professorial observations about the potency of words and their application to the craft of writing.
Writing should always be exploratory. There shouldn’t be the assumption that you know ahead of time what you want to express.
