George Saunders
Short-story writer and novelist; won the Booker Prize for Lincoln in the Bardo, and teaches craft weekly in Story Club.
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Where they publish
Newsletter Story Club His newsletter teaching how short stories work, one at a time. Has a feed.
Open georgesaunders.substack.com
Recent
- In Which Gunnhild Øyehaug Answers Your Questions 20 Sept 2026 (Your Fabulous Questions)
- First Thoughts on “Apples” 13 Sept 2026 A wonderment of a story by Gunnhild Øyehaug
- Some Thoughts on Non-Fiction 10 Sept 2026
Show 17 more
- A New Story 6 Sept 2026 “Apples,” by Gunnhild Øyehaug
- If You’re Near Lexington, VA... 2 Sept 2026 So Will I Be. :)
- Nona Fernández Answers... 30 Aug 2026 ...your questions on “The Illumination of Santiago”
- Some Movie News... 28 Aug 2026 ...about “Lincoln in the Bardo”
- “Rude Awakenings” 26 Aug 2026 My chat with Samuel Bercholz: Full Video.
- Join me today.... 25 Aug 2026 ...for my interview with Samuel Bercholz
- A Slight Change of Plans.... 23 Aug 2026 ..and some thoughts on that which shall not be named (i.e., blurbs)
- “Expanding a Restrictive Paradigm” 20 Aug 2026
- "The Illumination of Santiago" 16 Aug 2026 Let's discuss this beautiful thing.
- "The Illumination of Santiago" 9 Aug 2026 A new story for us, by Nona Fernández
- On the Perils of Self-Assessing... 6 Aug 2026 ...too early, too roughly, too preemptively.
- Sudden Cheers and Whoops 2 Aug 2026 In which we step through five pages of "Al Roosten," in service of the Platforms and Stepladder model of the short story.
- Happy Sunday 26 Jul 2026 Platforms, stepladders, Orwell
- Seams 23 Jul 2026 What does a good idea feel like?
- If a Ghostly Cow Shows Up, Maybe Leave it Alone 19 Jul 2026 Thoughts on “The Legend of Lough Gur”
- A Simple Irish Story 12 Jul 2026 From which much can be learned.
- The Natural-Born Artist. 9 Jul 2026 Is there such a thing? (Office Hours)
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 10 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
What matters is not how the writer felt while writing it but how the reader will feel while reading it.
What matters is not how we felt on reading what you’re written, but how the reader is going to feel on reading it.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
A first draft should not be graded good or bad; it is only the material that taste then gets to act on.
Just don’t do it. Accept it, whatever it is, as a starting place in the long game of exerting your taste on your own prose.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
Going to read work you know is good when your own is going badly is legitimate recalibration, not theft.
I do, yes, get into “funks like that” and I do just what you describe: I go find some writing that I know is good and check in against that.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
Show 7 more
Making art is a job you turn up to whether or not you feel inspired, and the work only arrives for people who are already at the desk.
Write something, in any old mood – feeling great about it or terrible, doesn’t matter.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
The only style worth having is the one you cannot help; setting out to develop a personal style is the wrong goal.
And that there might come a moment, while reading a new, just-edited-for-the-thousandth-time draft, where that true self, or voice, pops out at you, suddenly revealed, as if someone else, not you, had done it.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
The recipe for great work is very exacting taste plus the ability to gratify it; it is easier to see ugliness than to imagine beauty.
Could this phrase or sentence or paragraph or section be improved, even a little? That is, can I make myself (on this very localized turf) make myself dislike it less?
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
There is no separate class of natural-born artists: the artistic impulse is ordinary curiosity about life turned into a wish to make someone else feel something.
I think of it like this: any person has an innate curiosity about life, and an energy toward it, that may manifest itself in all kinds of ways throughout the course of their life.
The Natural-Born Artist. Said 9 Jul 2026
Insisting on knowing whether you have talent, or started too late, closes doors that staying uncertain would have left open.
The more we know – the more we insist on being sure – the more doors we close.
The Natural-Born Artist. Said 9 Jul 2026
Years of apparent failure and waiting can be the artistic work itself rather than evidence of a missing gift.
Someone might have to live a long time before the thing they were born to say becomes fully formed and accessible to them.
The Natural-Born Artist. Said 9 Jul 2026
The self-critical half of a maker's mind should be coached to be kind, because a gentler internal auditor produces bolder work.
A kinder assistant makes for a more daring detective.
The Natural-Born Artist. Said 9 Jul 2026
Beliefs others hold too
Making art is a job you turn up to whether or not you feel inspired, and the work only arrives for people who are already at the desk. 3 hold this
Write something, in any old mood – feeling great about it or terrible, doesn’t matter.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
The only style worth having is the one you cannot help; setting out to develop a personal style is the wrong goal. 2 hold this
And that there might come a moment, while reading a new, just-edited-for-the-thousandth-time draft, where that true self, or voice, pops out at you, suddenly revealed, as if someone else, not you, had done it.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
The recipe for great work is very exacting taste plus the ability to gratify it; it is easier to see ugliness than to imagine beauty. 2 hold this
Could this phrase or sentence or paragraph or section be improved, even a little? That is, can I make myself (on this very localized turf) make myself dislike it less?
On the Perils of Self-Assessing... Said 6 Aug 2026
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Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
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From one piece On the Perils of Self-Assessing... 6 beliefs · georgesaunders.substack.com
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Their words
Could this phrase or sentence or paragraph or section be improved, even a little? That is, can I make myself (on this very localized turf) make myself dislike it less?
On the Perils of Self-Assessing...georgesaunders.substack.com
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korrents.com
The only style worth having is the one you cannot help; setting out to develop a personal style is the wrong goal.Their words
And that there might come a moment, while reading a new, just-edited-for-the-thousandth-time draft, where that true self, or voice, pops out at you, suddenly revealed, as if someone else, not you, had done it.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing...georgesaunders.substack.com
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Their words
Write something, in any old mood – feeling great about it or terrible, doesn’t matter.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing...georgesaunders.substack.com
+ 3 more
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korrents.com
Going to read work you know is good when your own is going badly is legitimate recalibration, not theft.Their words
I do, yes, get into “funks like that” and I do just what you describe: I go find some writing that I know is good and check in against that.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing...georgesaunders.substack.com
-
korrents.com
A first draft should not be graded good or bad; it is only the material that taste then gets to act on.Their words
Just don’t do it. Accept it, whatever it is, as a starting place in the long game of exerting your taste on your own prose.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing...georgesaunders.substack.com
-
korrents.com
What matters is not how the writer felt while writing it but how the reader will feel while reading it.Their words
What matters is not how we felt on reading what you’re written, but how the reader is going to feel on reading it.
On the Perils of Self-Assessing...georgesaunders.substack.com
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Nothing matches.
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