This my second post about James Alan McPherson, a man whose example provided the most important writing advice I’ve ever received. When we conversed over breakfast, the concern that most consumed him was his acrimonious divorce and the fact that he wasn’t allowed to see his children. This filled...
Only part of this post concerns writing technique; mostly, it focuses on my mentor and friend, James Alan McPherson, who died this summer. However, that single consideration is an enormously important perspective on process, one that can guide any writer. Jim was one of my first workshop teachers at...
This is my third post concerning techniques for beginning stories and (primarily) novels. As I mentioned in the first two, beginnings can be generally divided into two approaches: distant and close. This post will consider “closer” beginnings. While distant beginnings start by providing the reader with visual, factual, or...