In a very real way, one writes a story to find out what happens in it. Before it is written it sits in the mind like a piece of overheard gossip or a bit of intriguing tattle. The story process is like taking up such a piece of gossip, hunting down the people actually involved, questioning them, finding out what really occurred, and visiting pertinent locations. As with gossip, you can't be too surprised if important things turn up that were left out of the first-heard version entirely; or if points initially made much of turn out to have been distorted, or simply not to have happened at all. . Samuel R. Delany
About This Quote

I think it is important for writers to understand that their stories are very personal. It is not unusual for them to be alarmed to find out that there are characters in the story that they do not know, or that the people in the story do not exist in real life. The writing process is like taking up such a piece of gossip, hunting down the people actually involved, questioning them, finding out what really occurred, and visiting pertinent locations. The writer needs to learn all of these things before they can even begin to write down the story.

Source: The Jewelhinged Jaw: Notes On The Language Of Science Fiction

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