Stories of all lengths and depths come from different parts of the cave. For a novel, you must lay in mental, physical and spiritual provision as for a siege or for a time of hectic explosions, while a short story is, or can be, a steady, timed flame like the lighting of a blow lamp on a building site full of dry tinder.
Interpretation
Writing requires careful preparation and understanding of different forms.
In this quote, Jane Gardam emphasizes the distinct approaches needed for crafting a novel versus a short story. She uses metaphors of a siege and a steady flame to illustrate that while a novel demands extensive mental and emotional investment akin to preparing for a challenging battle, a short story can be more focused and deliberate, akin to lighting a controlled flame in a construction setting. This highlights the diverse skills and preparations involved in different forms of storytelling.
In practice
An author discussed her creative process during a workshop.
I discovered that writing was very nice indeed when I was very young, and I never changed. I don't think my style has changed very much at all - though I hope what I say is a bit more interesting. It's about getting to know a character and loving them, I think.
I started to write as a child as soon as I could read, or even before, when my mother read me Beatrix Potter at bedtime. Writing seemed to me to be the only sensible way to live and be happy.
I was nearly 40 when I started. I had no fear that I wasn't going to write. I knew it was just delayed. Then, my goodness, I never stopped.
In modern novels, there is no one I want to copy. My style 'is a poor thing, but it is my own.'
It's funny, but certain faces seem to go in and out of style. You look at old photographs and everybody has a certain look to them, almost as if they're related. Look at pictures from ten years later and you can see that there's a new kind of face starting to predominate, and that the old faces are fading away and vanishing, never to be seen again.
There is no truer truth obtainable by Man than comes of music
The most beautiful thing in the world is a ballpark filled with people.
Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns.
I believe in low lights and trick mirrors.
Generally, we use light to illuminate other things. I like the thingness, the materiality of light itself. So it feels like it's occupying the space, making a plane, being something that was there, not just passing through. Because light is just passing through. I make these spaces that seem to arrest it for our perception.
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