Stephen Graham Jones Says Craft Carries 95% of a Novel. The Wrap-Up Is Where Art Starts.
Stephen Graham Jones says craft can get a writer through 95% of a novel, and that craft is mechanics. The little techniques are there to achieve this or that, to situate the story and the reader.
The actual art of writing a good story, he says, doesn't really come into focus until the wrap-up. His image for the rest: a story running along the top of a flat mesa at night, 95% of it even-footing.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Take
Ninety-five percent mechanics is a strangely comforting ratio: most of the job is technique, not lightning.
Pushback
But if the art only arrives at the wrap-up, the last pages carry a lot of weight; a clean manuscript can still miss the one move that matters.