Category Archives: Thoughts on Writing

In 1852, a decade before the American Civil War, Harriet Becher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. Since then, the novel has become part of the literary canon, and while it is not an example of a well-written text, its influence on how people viewed slavery is undeniable. It has even been suggested that Stowe’sContinue reading “Thought: Diversity Reader”

“Thanks to “show don’t tell,” I find writers in my workshops who think exposition is wicked. They’re afraid to describe the world they’ve invented. (I make them read the first chapter of The Return of the Native, a description of a landscape, in which absolutely nothing happens until in the last paragraph a man isContinue reading “Thought: Showing vs. Telling”