Ursula Hegi

It always comes back to sitting alone at a desk, she said. I do between 50 and 100 revisions. So the way I used to write is the way I still write.

I do it to really go very deeply into the characters to understand the characters, to explore the characters. And a lot has to do with language. I write fiction as if I were writing poetry.

After I’ve written a story, after I’ve gone through it 50 or 100 times, each time I feel those feelings. I go through that experience with the character. And after I have finished the story, on an emotional level, it has become my experience, and I am altered.

Ursula Hegi