How to Be Less Lame

"When I write, 'Bob was an asshole,' and then, feeling this perhaps somewhat lacking in specificity, revise it to read, Bob snapped impatiently at the barista,' then ask myself, seeking yet more specificity, why Bob might have done that, and revise to, 'Bob snapped impatiently at the young barista, who reminded him of his dead wife,' and then pause and add, 'who he missed so much, especially now, at Christmas,' – I didn’t make that series of changes because I wanted the story to be more compassionate. I did it because I wanted it to be less lame."

— George Saunders