writing process – Author

I Teach People To Feel — That’s What Writers Do

Writer John Dufresne used to say, “You want to be a better writer? Be a better person.” I teach people to read their own lives. I teach them how to make sense of their own narratives, how to break down the barriers and defenses that keep them from knowing themselves and knowing others. Those barriers are embedded in the language itself.

The Stories I Teach and Why I Teach Them: #1 “A Good Man Is Hard To FInd”

I teach an undergraduate class in fiction at Georgia Southern University. I often have to think which stories I can select from the amazingly large arsenal of great literature. This is no easy feat. I’ve decided to post a series of blogs on the selections I make, explaining why they lend themselves as good examplesContinue reading “The Stories I Teach and Why I Teach Them: #1 “A Good Man Is Hard To FInd””

Characters’ Hauntings

I’m one of those writers who believes that her characters are alive in a parallel Universe, living out different possibilities in exponentially larger options than my limited human mind can invent. But on some level I also know that I am my character’s god and that some of them are very much aware of me,Continue reading “Characters’ Hauntings”