Does research get in the way of the story? It certainly can. Anything can, given that as writers we're all geniuses at procrastination. But mostly research teaches me about the world. Which often shows me the way, in terms of the story.
Jim ShepardI feel like one of the things I'm trying most to do is stretch my empathetic reach, as far as it will go. I got as far as Gilles de Rais' assistant, for example, and not really as far as de Rais himself.
Jim ShepardI love the box that such a decision puts you in, and I love the interest the reader has in seeing how you negotiate that box: that seemingly hugely narrowed set of options. I also like the way in which it reminds us that we connect to the real world. That our relationship to the world matters.
Jim ShepardI spend most of my time reading non-fiction of all sorts. Then poetry. Then fiction to blurb. Then fiction I want to read.
Jim ShepardThe protagonist of Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours doesnโt make it easy for us, channeling as he does Barry Hannah and Denis Johnson by way of Rick Bass and Dennis Hopper, and self-presenting as yet another damaged romantic who thinks itโs always time to play the cowboy, skating in and out of sense. He canโt see right, and heโs haunted by nearly everything. Heโs trying to open up or shut himself down or at least get a hold of himself. Heโs trying to make do with what heโs done, while he reminds us that weโre all, one way or another, in that position.
Jim Shepard