Committing to a structure too early makes flawed writing seem right

Evidence

You must be able to loop back on yourself, and to be able to arrange the elements of which your story consists in an order that is entirely flexible. In the end you must make a decision, but why not postpone it till the last possible point? Because once you have made the commitment, what you have written starts to look right. It gains a brutal ascendancy over you. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1078

Categorization

• SEED: The insight that commitment creates a false sense of correctness is broadly applicable — to drafting, editing, and decision-making beyond writing.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1078
• XREF: connects to: Writer’s block is really a fear of committing to one narrative path — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 44; Story shape emerges late, after factual material is already gathered — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1141; Writers make split-second structural decisions during the haste of composition — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1095 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Committed text gains a brutal ascendancy that distorts structural revision. #expands (0.95) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1078
• Story shape emerges late, after factual material is already gathered #corroborates (0.85) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1141
• Writers make split-second structural decisions during the haste of composition #qualifies (0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1095
• Writer’s block is really a fear of committing to one narrative path #complicates (0.70) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 44