Dave Schwartz on “Bear in Contradicting Landscape.”

I sometimes find writers talking about writing a little dull. This essay is very different, and I highly recommend it. (I also highly recommend “Bear in Contradicting Landscape” in The Book of Apex, Vol. 4.

Some of my favorite bits:

I wrote “Bear” when I was living in Chicago, making frequent trips along the Blue Line to various temp jobs. I was also in a state of creative ferment like nothing I’ve experienced since. During that time I wrote dozens of short stories, sometimes finishing one in two days, scribbling down sentences wherever I happened to be. Some of those stories were published. Some of them seem slight to me now, like listening to someone else’s vaguely interesting dream. Others, like “The Water-Poet and the Four Seasons,” still work, but almost seem like someone else wrote them.

“Bear” is different. “Bear” feels like the nightmares I had when I was young that still make my blood pressure spike when I think about them now. And just like everything else right now, the reasons why this is so are hazy to me.

It’s short but has a lot to say. Read the whole thing here!