Writing A Short Story Is

I Have To Admit That 'psychology Today' Was One Of The First Magazines I Started Reading, Back When I Was 13 Or 14, Because I Was The Kind Of Kid That Was Curious About The Mysterious Human Mind - I Hoped To Learn About Telekenisis, Multiple Personalities, Psychosis, And Various Other Cool And Terrible Things That Happened Inside People's Heads.

I Never Could Figure Out How Those People Like Bukowski Could Be Both Carousers And Writers At The Same Time, Because To Me Writing Takes As Much Destructive Energy As It Takes To Be A Really Good Professional Drunk.

Plot Was Always Secondary In My Mind.

I'd Read An Enormous Amount But Had Spent So Much Time In My Own Head That I Didn't Have Extensive Social Skills. Suddenly I Was In This World Where I Was Surrounded By These Incredibly Polished And Wealthy Kids Who Had Gone To Prep Schools, And I Felt Daunted By Them. I Don't Think People Were Aware Of How Full Of Anxiety I Was... For A Long Time I Felt Like I Was Living In A Place Where I Shouldn't Have Been.

I Start With An Image, Then I Go From The Image Toward Exploring The Situation. Then I Write A Scene, And From The Scene I Find The Character, From The Character I Find The Larger Plot. It's Like Deductive Reasoning - I Start With The Smaller Stuff And Work Backward.