"For the novels I wrote before selling anything, I didn't outline much. I had a vague idea of the story"
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There is a quiet confession of risk management in George Stephen's shrug of a line: before the market validated him, he wrote like an amateur because he was, in the best sense of the word - uncredentialed, unmonetized, unpoliced by expectations. "Before selling anything" is the tell. It frames creativity as something that changes shape the moment an audience, a publisher, or even a paycheck enters the room. The vagueness isn't just about process; it's about freedom.
As a businessman in the late 19th century, Stephen would have lived inside the gospel of planning: ledgers, timetables, logistics, foresight. That makes the admission more revealing. He’s describing a private zone where the habits of commerce loosened their grip. A "vague idea" reads less like laziness than like permission to discover the story while writing it - a practice that modern creators would recognize as drafting in the dark, letting voice and character do the outlining for you.
The subtext is also defensive, almost preemptive: if those early novels were messy, it’s because they were made before external stakes hardened into internal pressure. Once you start selling, you start managing not just a story but a product, a brand, a repeatable method. The line captures the pivot from art as exploration to art as deliverable - and suggests, politely but pointedly, that commercialization doesn’t only reward talent. It disciplines it.
As a businessman in the late 19th century, Stephen would have lived inside the gospel of planning: ledgers, timetables, logistics, foresight. That makes the admission more revealing. He’s describing a private zone where the habits of commerce loosened their grip. A "vague idea" reads less like laziness than like permission to discover the story while writing it - a practice that modern creators would recognize as drafting in the dark, letting voice and character do the outlining for you.
The subtext is also defensive, almost preemptive: if those early novels were messy, it’s because they were made before external stakes hardened into internal pressure. Once you start selling, you start managing not just a story but a product, a brand, a repeatable method. The line captures the pivot from art as exploration to art as deliverable - and suggests, politely but pointedly, that commercialization doesn’t only reward talent. It disciplines it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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