I’m trying to figure out when she meant by that, since to me all writing is shaping something into the finished thing. And both my novels -- fiction, obviously -- have taken considerable research.

Even short stories, which may not take much research, certainly take shaping. Tons of it, in fact, since the short story form is all about economy, where anything superfluous sticks out like stone bunny ears over the head of the Venus de Milo. Crafting a decent short story involves chipping away...