Considering Fiction

This week I have committed to writing a bad short story. I don’t know what it’s about or how long it’s going to be, but it’s going to happen. It’s already getting too snarky (a common pitfall) so I was particularly challenged by this quote by Andre Dubus in this week’s NYT Book Review editorial,

“It seems to me that the primary job of the artist is the paint in the grey, to capture the texture of this life without moralizing or pontificating. This is a sustained act of empathy …” 

I have become increasingly interested in empathy lately, but I have only marginally allowed it to influence my writing for the past year. Perhaps as I begin to write (and read) more fiction I will become more empathetic and gradually see the world through a more complex perspective.

I’m interested to see where this direction takes me … or where I take my writing in the process.