I've been trying for weeks to buy a book of Flannery O'Connor stamps, but my post office in Mountain Grove, Mo., doesn't carry them yet. Darn. While I wait for the new stamps to arrive, I thought I'd share some advice Flannery O'Connor (aka, "the hermit novelist") once gave about how to begin a short story or novel.
"If you start with a real personality, a real character, then something is bound to happen; and you don't have to know what before you begin. In fact, it may be better if you don't know what before you begin. You ought to be able to discover something from your stories. If you don't, probably nobody else will."
"If you start with a real personality, a real character, then something is bound to happen; and you don't have to know what before you begin. In fact, it may be better if you don't know what before you begin. You ought to be able to discover something from your stories. If you don't, probably nobody else will."