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How I Wrote "A Gift of Gold"

By John Keith

When I wrote "A Gift of Gold", a short story included in a recently published anthology, "I Thought My Father Was God", edited by Paul Auster, I chose between two paths I could travel in the creative process. One path was like that taken by the painter who first sketches a scene on his canvas, shapes and reshapes it for design and composition, then adds details of line, color and hue, refining all of them progressively until the work is finished. The other path is like that of the stone mason, who when building a wall, selects each stone, shapes it carefully and sets it in place to fit well with the others placed before. If the mason finds the fit imperfect, he reshapes the stone, or discards it and seeks another. When I wrote "A Gift of Gold", I chose not to travel the painter’s route. I didn’t rough out the first draft, counting on rewriting later to refine the work. I felt compelled to follow the path of the stonemason, to hone and polish each phrase and each sentence, even each word and syllable, until it fit to my satisfaction before moving on. And finally, I owe a word of thanks to Paul Auster for a masterful edit prior to inclusion in his anthology.

The End