As you'll recall from English class---or, as they like to call it now, at least until high school, "Language Arts" class---fiction has two major elements: character and plot (yes, style and point-of-view matter also, but today I'm talking about the two biggies). My major shortcoming as a writer, which also could be thought of as... Continue Reading →
What do you love about reading fiction?
If you had asked me when I was in college or graduate school what I liked about writing, I would have said (a bit stuffily, I admit), “language.” I didn’t mean the language of R-rated movies but the language of William Faulkner or Jorge Luis Borges. I loved the complex ways the words fit together,... Continue Reading →