This month, we’re continuing our series of distinguished writer interviews with a Q&A with award-winning novelist and short story author Karen E. Bender. Karen’s story collection Refund was a Finalist for the 2015 National Book Award, shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Story Prize and longlisted for the Story prize. Her most recent collection, The New Order, was also longlisted for the Story prize. She is currently the Visiting Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University, and is Faculty for the low-residency MFA program at Alma College; she is also a BookEnds mentor.

Read below to learn more about Karen’s insights on the writing process …

You’ve written both novels and collections of short stories. How does the writing process differ for each? Are there lessons from one genre you can apply to the other?

Writing a story is like jogging and seeing an endpoint in front of me; writing a novel is more like a marathon and the endpoint may not be visible for some time. Both require patience, but a novel requires tremendous, really Herculean patience. A memorable story should have the feeling of expansiveness beyond the borders of the story, and a good novel should have the particular detail essential to stories.

I began to rewrite parts of my first novel as individual stories, and it helped me figure out how to edit. The concision of a story, the importance of every line and scene in construction of the structure, really helps you see what is necessary for a narrative rather than what you just want to keep in. And the expansiveness of a novel can help you see ways to enlarge the scope of stories.

Otherwise—for both genres, you want to write something honest, urgent, new—something you want to say that hasn’t quite been said in the way that you know you want to say it.

What’s your advice for writers entering the revision process of their manuscript?

First: look for what’s working. What feels most alive to you, most honest, most original. Then don’t think about revision as fixing everything all at once; revision is a series of tasks that you can address one at a time. When writing a draft, you have to allow yourself to make a mess, to take risks, to create and not know. Revision, though, is a process of knowing. You’re still making a mess, but doing tasks in a more intentional way. I also love Michelangelo’s quote that a sculpture is already there in the marble; it already exists. I like to say that your story and novel already exists in its final form, and you just need to do the work to release it!

You are a proponent of committing to a writing schedule (something I personally find very hard to do!). What is your schedule? How did you figure out a schedule that works for you?

I do think schedules can be helpful, but it’s also important to learn to be flexible with them. We have to juggle writing around so many things-jobs, families, etc. If you can try to write something each day—whether it’s half an hour or a page or something that feels manageable—the writing grows. The world, with all its demands, conspires to keep us from writing. The idea is not to be hard on yourself if you miss a day, because we all do, but to commit to writing so that it is part of you, that you announce to yourself and others that it is important, and that you carve out some time and space so that you can do it.  

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given on writing?

A few bits of advice stay with me: Martha Graham’s advice to Agnes de Mille about choreography: “It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”

 Frank Conroy said that the bad writing leads to the good writing. I find that calming and true.

Bonus question: What do you love about working with budding novelists? 

I remember so clearly what it was like writing my first novel, what it was like struggling through the muck. There really is nothing like that first novel muck. I love being able to help the new novelist clear a path through the muck, see what is wonderful about their novel, see their work in a new way. And it’s thrilling to watch their work get better as they revise it, as they see their own place in the literary conversation.

We’d love to hear: Do you have a writing schedule? And how do you approach revisions?

If you’re interested in working with Karen, consider applying to BookEnds. Our hands-on mentored fellowship can help you take your novel to the next level.