Monthly archive - July 2017

Today, if you can believe it, makes it ten years since we lost one of the greatest American writers-and, no matter how he tried to deny it, one of the greatest writing teachers. Certainly one of the greatest writing advice list-makers, at any rate.  Read more

Sometimes I want an opening to slap me in the face; other times I'd rather it come on like a creepy hand across my shoulder. There are millions of ways a voice can convince me to listen, but there are even more ways it can fail. I have little patience for the latter. Life is not long enough to ingest sub-par art.

In his book "Memoir: An Introduction," from 2011, the scholar G. Thomas Couser argues that we go to the genre not so much for detail or style as for "wisdom and self-knowledge," for what the main character, who is always the author, has learned. Sometimes, though, the style is the lesson.  Read more

Editors should never preach and that is not my intention, but whether you're a journalist or a writer of fiction or an editor of either one, when you look in the mirror you should think tireless or dogged or maybe even a stronger word (indefatigable?) to describe what you need to be to become successful, and what you should be as you go after the truth-which is your job.  Read more