Look at how the writers you love are doing things, and then copy them. I’m such a believer in copying. When I was teaching writing, I used to say: “Leave off this paragraph of an Elizabeth Bowen story; write the next paragraph.” And they all thought that they were copying Elizabeth Bowen. It didn’t sound like her at all. It sounded like them, but b... See more

We tend to worship inventors and originators, designers who were trailblazing and innovative. And we copy them.

This oxymoron of a craft can drive a person crazy. There’s lots of space between originality and industry, authorship and acknowledgement, riffing and ripping. I wrote this very short book to explore that space.

Some people have been frus... See more