In May-June of 2003, I had the great good fortune to study with Marilynne Robinson for three weeks at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Here are some gems from Marilynne:
1) If you have any luck at all, when you sit down to write you won't end up writing what you intended at all.
2) You can't find a story without writing it all out (don't focus on page limits or word count).
3) Don't be loyal to the investment you've made in a weak scene instead of loyal to the scene itself. Does it deserve to die? If so, then kill it, no matter how long you've sweated over it.
4) A character shouldn't look like a type but a personality.
5) The tension in a piece of fiction is not how it ends but how it arrives at its ending.
Bonus Gem: You should always keep something in front of the reader's eye; it's like leading a blind person through the reader's house.
