A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

Saunders includes some suggested writing exercises as appendixes to this book. For the first of these exercises, Saunders asks writers to give themselves just five minutes to edit a text that provides, and then to ask themselves: “1) What did I cut? 2) Why did I cut it? 3) Is the resulting piece better or worse?” (493).

From this exercise, writers can learn about their editorial instincts. Saunders believes that a writer’s “voice” (496) is not developed simply by writing, but by revising and cutting . Moreover, editing adds focus and energy to a story; once the “mediocre bits” (497) are chopped from phrases, new directions for the story suggest themselves.

Saunders also suggests a follow-up exercise: cutting one of the writer’s own stories in half, once it is close to finished. He observes that this exercise can give a writer a “muscle memory” for editing (498).

This writing exercise gives writers 45 minutes to write a 200-word story using only 50 words. They are to keep track of these words with a numbered list at the bottom of their text.

These kinds of constraints can push writers to be more inventive and playful. Because they have a minimum of descriptive vocabulary, they are forced to get to the action of the story more quickly.