Gonna take a while for this egg to hatch

Deborah Eisenberg interview at Beatrice.com:

Ron Hogan: What starts a short story for you?

Deborah Eisenberg: There are a few things that might kick something off, like an image or a phrase. Sometimes there's a kind of tonality that I want, almost as if I was writing a piece of music. Unfortunately, I'm not at all musical and could never even dream of that, but sometimes in the back of my mind there's...you could almost describe it as a musical model, really... You know how sometimes there's just a certain slant of sunlight, the fragrance of a certain flower, and a whole world will open up in your head? You think, "What is that?" That's what I go for, an exploration of the signals that make you feel that way.

RH: It's a very meticulous process for you.

DE: I wish I were faster, and more fluent, that I knew much sooner what I was going for. I wish I were more efficient in every way. I'm just not, and I can't seem to do anything about it. It just takes many months of scrabbling around in swampy territory to figure out what it is that I want. There's always a point at which I think I have a final draft, then I read it and ask myself, "Why have I written this?" Then I go back and write it again and that's the final draft.

(Photo: Diana Michener.)