“In general I tend to write long, too long. Sometimes I’m just word drunk. Other times, I just get carried away. It’s like throwing a party, I begin locked in conversation with a character who fascinates me, troubles me, and I’m following their story closely, but doors keeps opening, guests keep arriving, the main character introduces me to their friends, before I know it the place is teeming with drunks and party crashers, some of whom have brought pets. Its only hours later, when my arms give out, that I collapse. This means I spend days, weeks even, ripping down streamers, booting out characters—the crack smoking cheerleader, a couple, covered in scratches from fighting in my linen closet, sending the blind seeing-eye dog back to the Amy Hempel story, which is his rightful home, putting the monkey-fur fringed fainting couch, which has no place in this story, in storage. I’m sweeping glitter out of stories for years.”
— Elissa Schappell, interviewed in BOMBLOG
