It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.
So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.
Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere.
Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.
There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.
This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.
The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.
It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.
I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.