Red Bridge authors share what takes them to the edge in their writing -- and why they go there. What are the biggest risks they've taken? How did they turn out?
In the first installment of this two part series, we hear from John Newman, Olga Zilberbourg, Edmund Zagorin, and Michelle S. Lee.
In the first installment of this two part series, we hear from John Newman, Olga Zilberbourg, Edmund Zagorin, and Michelle S. Lee.
John Newman: For me writing is the risk, and if you’re writing and your heart isn’t beating faster, then what you’re actually doing is typing. Everything I write begins with a tiny explosion in my brain that coughs up an image, a character, a first line. And I can see it, and I can feel it and hear and smell it. And I close my eyes for just a moment and the whole thing happens right there inside me; I see it all from beginning to end and it’s so fucking perfect. And then...well, I have to somehow put down that story in words. I have to reach inside and pull it out intact, without breaking it, without my great clumsy paws warping it beyond recognition. And I know it’s impossible.