What we try to do over the next three years is help them achieve what I call their "iconic space" - the place from which they will write the stories only they could write, using what makes them uniquely themselves — their strengths, weaknesses, obsessions, peculiarities, the whole deal. At this level, good writing is assumed; the goal is to help them acquire the technical means to become defiantly and joyfully themselves.
-George Saunders, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain