A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

I have been collaborating with Ella (another PILOT student) to work on our writing. We read the book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. The book included several Russian short stories, and after each story the author wrote an essay and an afterthought, about what he thought was important and interesting in the story. I have learned a lot from this book that I will use to improve my own writing. Here are my notes on the book, as well as notes on my discussions with Ella about it:

What I Learned from A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Here is some of what I learned from A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, taken from my Semester 1 Narrative:


A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a book about Russian short stories. The author, George Saunders, teaches a masters class on this, and so the book is based on what he teaches in that class. It contains seven short stories by famous Russian authors, and after each story Saunders includes an essay about what he thinks of the story, including breaking down elements of the writing and how the reader interprets it, then he follows that with an afterthought. I found the essays that Saunders wrote about the stories to be quite helpful because there were a lot of parts in the stories that I didn’t get or was confused about, and in the essay he helped me to understand the deeper meaning of it.

Ella and I both read this book and then discussed it together - and when we talked about what we found interesting in the book, we also talked about how we could apply that or think about it in terms of our own stories. I took notes on the chapters and on our discussions, and I will probably look back at those later when I am working on my story, for more writing tips and to see my previous conceptions of my story that may have changed or evolved. Although my “short story” is definitely not a short story anymore, it was still really valuable to read and I got some ideas that I want to incorporate into my own writing.

One helpful excerpt that I took away from the book was: “Be specific, honor efficiency, and always be escalating.” (Saunders, p. 153) This is something that will be good for me to keep in mind when I am writing stories. The book talked a lot about the “heart of a story” which Ella and I thought about for our own stories several times in our discussions. Saunders also brought up an interesting point that narrators can change and affect a story based on how they tell it, and that usually narrators are biased and subjective. This is something that all writers should consider while writing stories. Saunders mentioned expectations several times, explaining that an author sets expectations at the beginning of the story, and answers those expectations as the story progresses. This is an idea that applies to all stories, and Saunders says that an interesting story answers those expectations enough to satisfy the reader, without directly doing exactly what they expect.

Another point that Saunders stresses is that there is power in omission, and that leaving room for inferences shows respect to the reader. This is particularly relevant to my story right now because the reader has to make a lot of inferences about the Water Realm, because I haven’t figured out a lot of the details yet. I also got a new perspective on moral transformation from this book: that moral transformation is simply redirecting someone’s natural energy, not replacing it. This will be a good way of thinking about how the characters in my story change and develop. Additionally, Saunders pointed out how the omens were used to enhance one of the stories, and although I’m not sure yet how I can use this in my current story, I definitely want to include it in a story sometime. Overall, I learned a lot from A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, and I am excited to apply that knowledge to my own writing.