SOURCE: "Waiting for the Story to Start," in The New York Times Book Review, February 7, 1988, pp. 1, 36.

In the following essay, Martin describes her views on writing and the creative process.

Unlike babies, not all stories come from the same place, and not all people who create stories go about it in the same way. Every writer who has succeeded in bringing a story to life has also managed to kill a few, usually by force. Most of us have lost a few along the way too—stories that started as ideas, stories that came from arguments or from a desire to set the record straight.

An Excerpt from a Recent Martyr

Claire was more comfortable in Pascal's company on the walk back across the Square. She took advantage of this feeling to try more directly to get away from him. "I intend," she said, "to spend any time...