It is common to say “I was heartbroken to hear” that so-and-so died, but I really do feel heartbroken having learned about Alice Munro, who died on Monday.
She has long been a North Star for many writers and was someone I have always felt guided by.
We are very different writers, but I have kept her in mind, daily and for decades, as an example to follow (but failed to follow to the extent that she demonstrated it): that a fiction writer isn’t someone for hire.
A fiction writer isn’t someone who can write anything — movies, articles, obits!
She isn’t a person in service to the magazines, to the newspapers, to the publishers or even to her audience.
Persons:
Alice Munro, isn’t
Organizations:
Star