The trick to writing a story

The trick, I sometimes think, to writing a story is not necessarily just to get it written down. Stories can pour forth in voluminous quantities, especially when they find their source in deep places. The sheer onslaught becomes a torrent, unstoppable in its force, and prone to setting its own course.

“At some point, my writer's brain started to whisper a mantra...”

Make it a simple story about hope.

Make it a story about human resilience.

Make it a story where people still laugh, brush their teeth, still fall in love, a story where people redeem one another by small gestures, a story where people have no choice but to keep going in the face of huge tragedy and unspeakable loss.

From 'Author's Note' by Gae Polisner, in The Memory of Things 

Curiosities

'Blank? My dearest Abel, nothing could be further than the truth. You burst with stories. If your lives were painted they would fill every gallery in every city and still men would have to build more to fit you in.'

'Yet I have forgotten.'

'Forgetting you have done something is not the same as not having done it.'

The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland, 2013