"I like to be surprised. The best writing is when it defies me, when it starts going a different way than I had planned"
About this Quote
Control is the quiet addiction of writing, and Wally Lamb is describing the moment you decide to go cold turkey. The line reads like a craft tip, but it’s really a manifesto against the fantasy of the author as mastermind. “I like to be surprised” shifts authority away from the outline and toward discovery. He’s not merely tolerating detours; he’s chasing them, treating unpredictability as the clearest sign the work is alive.
The key phrase is “defies me.” Lamb frames the page as a collaborator with its own will, which is a sly way of admitting how often writers smuggle certainty into a draft: the characters behave, the plot clicks into place, the theme arrives on schedule. When the writing “starts going a different way than I had planned,” it suggests the story has finally grown sharp enough to argue back. That’s not mysticism so much as attention: the author has listened long enough to notice when a person on the page wouldn’t logically make the “useful” choice.
Context matters because Lamb’s fiction often sits in the messy overlap of trauma, family loyalty, and moral gray zones. Those subjects punish neat architecture. If you already know where everything lands, you risk turning pain into a schematic and people into vessels for a message. Surprise becomes an ethical stance: letting characters complicate the plot the way real lives complicate our narratives about them. The subtext is a dare to writers and readers alike: don’t confuse a well-executed plan with truth. The best stories don’t just move forward; they push back.
The key phrase is “defies me.” Lamb frames the page as a collaborator with its own will, which is a sly way of admitting how often writers smuggle certainty into a draft: the characters behave, the plot clicks into place, the theme arrives on schedule. When the writing “starts going a different way than I had planned,” it suggests the story has finally grown sharp enough to argue back. That’s not mysticism so much as attention: the author has listened long enough to notice when a person on the page wouldn’t logically make the “useful” choice.
Context matters because Lamb’s fiction often sits in the messy overlap of trauma, family loyalty, and moral gray zones. Those subjects punish neat architecture. If you already know where everything lands, you risk turning pain into a schematic and people into vessels for a message. Surprise becomes an ethical stance: letting characters complicate the plot the way real lives complicate our narratives about them. The subtext is a dare to writers and readers alike: don’t confuse a well-executed plan with truth. The best stories don’t just move forward; they push back.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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