Is your email-writing voice very different from what ends up
on the page in a story – that narrative construction you use with the
collection?
I can’t write incorrectly. I find it very
difficult to just relax and have spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes
and punctuation – I cannot do that. But I can’t do that even if I write a
shopping list, so that’s not surprising. I can’t be casual, so it’s
more correct. Sometimes I have fun writing it nicely – doing parallel
constructions or, you know – but of course it’s more relaxed than a
formal story, but it’s still a piece of writing that has an effect
whether it’s a really good friend or a business email so I’m still quite
conscious. It’s amazing how you can write something quickly and when I
reread it – I always reread my emails – I make mistakes and I’m
confusing and you’d think after all this time I could write a quick
email that would be absolutely perfect, but I can’t.
- Lydia Davis interview
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