"I enrolled in this class so I could be better prepared to write short fiction," one of my Grammar 200 students wrote me in an email. "Do you have any advice for me?"
My chest swelled. Yes, I have advice. Number 1: Read lots of good short fiction. (I attached some of my favorite short stories and essays.) Number 2: Revise, revise, revise. Murder your darlings. Number 3: Just write. I quoted Stephen King's Memoir, On Writing: "The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things only get better."
And there I stopped. I thought of the post-its and scraps of paper with my ideas for plot lines, characters, themes; the blank screens of too many Word documents.
I promoted Number 3 to position 1 and clicked send.
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