It’s no great trick to take a great piece of fiction and turn it into the best story ever written, but anybody can do that. The hard thing is to make it into the best story this writer can write. — Former New Yorker Editor William Shawn, as Quoted by Roger Angell My favorite part of the excellent new interview …
Steve’s Blog: Reverse Hemingway Principle
If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit. —Ernest Hemingway Generations of writers have been influenced by the Hemingway …
Steve’s Weekly Blog: Writing Through Impeachment
Every four years when it is time for the Iowa caucuses, and people start gathering at caucusing sites, I am reminded of Shirley Jackson’s story, ‘The Lottery.” ― Anne Lamott Nothing jolts the creative writer like failure, a necessary and constant companion to every working writer, so maybe the complete breakdown of our collective ability to tell the story of …
Joseph in the Kitchen
Look who I found in the kitchen! It’s Joseph cooking Ruth’s sweet potato curry – he’s actually a little intimidated by cooking, in spite of having created many scrumptious dinners for us in the past. So many writers who come to us are not used to cooking from scratch for a whole crowd of people, but I’ve never tasted anything …