As Writers We Need To Crack Open

Our Job As Writers Is To Listen, To Come Home To The Four Corners Of The Earth.

When You Write What You Know, You Stay In Control. One Of The First Things I Encourage My Writing Students To Do Is To Lose Control - Say What They Want To Say, Break Structure.

So Writing Is Not Just Writing. It Is Also Having A Relationship With Other Writers. And Don't Be Jealous, Especially Secretly. That's The Worst Kind. If Someone Writes Something Great, It's Just More Clarity In The World For All Of Us.

In The Past Few Years I've Assigned Books To Be Read Before A Student Attends One Of My Weeklong Seminars. I Have Been Astonished By How Few People -- People Who Supposedly Want To Write -- Read Books, And If They Read Them, How Little They Examine Them.

There Is No Security, No Assurance That Because We Wrote Something Good Two Months Ago, We Will Do It Again. Actually, Every Time We Begin, We Wonder How We Ever Did It Before.