Writers end up writing stories-or rather, stories' shadows-and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough
Interpretation
Writers create narratives that often feel incomplete, and they struggle with the dissatisfaction of never fully capturing their intentions.
This quote by Joy Williams expresses the profound sense of inadequacy that writers often experience. Despite their efforts to bring stories to life, they often feel that what they produce falls short of their vision. The phrase 'stories' shadows' suggests that the tales told are merely reflections or echoes of the deeper narratives the writers wish to convey, highlighting a continual pursuit of fulfillment in their craft that often remains elusive.
In practice
A writer could use this quote in a workshop to discuss the struggles of the creative process.
What a story is, is devious. It pretends transparency, forthrightness. It engages with ordinary people, ordinary matters, recognizable stuff. But this is all a masquerade. What good stories deal with is the horror and incomprehensibility of time, the dark encroachment of old catastrophes...
Good writing never soothes or comforts. It is no prescription, neither is it diversionary, although it can and should enchant while it explodes in the reader's face.
When the bright angel dominates, out comes a great work of art, a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony.
The writers job is to get naked, To hide nothing. To look away from nothing. To look at it. To not blink. To be not embarrassed or shamed of it. Strip it down and lets get down to where the blood is, the bone is. Instead of hiding it with clothes and all kinds of other stuff, luxury!
I often recall these words when I am writing, and I think to myself, “It’s true. There aren’t any new words. Our job is to give new meanings and special overtones to absolutely ordinary words.” I find the thought reassuring. It means that vast, unknown stretches still lie before us, fertile territories just waiting for us to cultivate them.
I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better than something you might find in the newspaper. And I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.
It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in.
The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
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