RulesIt might be helpful to believe in absolutes when you’re first writing fiction. I’ve taught creative writing for 35 years, longer than I’ve been publishing books, but I believe in modes of thinking, not rules. At heart, as both fiction writer and teacher, I’m an aphorist and a metaphorist. Real writers write every day – that’s what the director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop told us at our first-day picnic. If the author and characters know a secret and only the reader is left in the dark, that’s a needless mystery.

Source: The Guardian January 03, 2026 18:17 UTC