Before You Can Write a Good Plot, You Need to Write a Good Place
The author Linn Ulmann makes the case for the importance of here in “Something happened here.”
By Heart
Authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature.
Why Every Writer Needs Two Educations
Marcus Burke, author of Team Seven and a former college athlete, learned from Carter G. Woodson that teaching yourself is just as important as being taught in the classroom.
'What Plot Is Grander or More Essential Than Time Passing?'
Maggie Shipstead, author of Astonish Me, looks to Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse as an example of how to speed up and slow down fiction narratives effectively.
'We Sweat, Crave, and Itch All Day': Why Writing About Bodies Is Vital
The Empathy Exams author Leslie Jamison felt ashamed of writing about the physical form until a Virginia Woolf essay vindicated her interest in the fluids and muscles that make us human.
How to Write a Believable Happy Ending
As author Ted Thompson learned from John Cheever, a redemptive resolution doesn't erase the darkness of a story, but instead finds the light within it.
'Words on Paper Will Outlast Us': How Claire Messud Distills Her Life
The author of The Woman Upstairs says that writing preserves the worlds we inhabit—even if so much of them dies with us.
'I Don't Believe in Writer's Block'
John Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown showed author Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski that great work can happen when you write without knowing where you're going.
How Novels Widen Your Vision
Author Dinaw Mengestu says good books help you to recognize yourself in the unfamiliar.
An Uncomfortable Trick for Honest Writing: Staring at Strangers
Author Yiyun Li doesn't just study people on the subway—she studies her characters, unflinchingly imagining their gaze until she understands them fully.
Why You Never Truly Finish a Book
Thirty Girls author Susan Minot says great writing—like T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"—is a source of nourishment readers turn to again and again.