Write every day. Show, don't tell. Don't use adverbs. Don't write a prologue. The best-known rules for writers often sound like they were written by a Dickensian headmaster: a series of punishments, a collection of "don'ts" designed to make writing the most deadly dull chore imaginable. Yet the breaking of these rules is common in some of the most dynamic writing by some of our greatest authors. The goal of this session will be to examine the conventional wisdom surrounding writing, and, through use of published excerpts and discussion, to help writers decide when, and how, to break the rules.
lisaborders.com.">Lisa Borders’ second novel, The Fifty-First State, was published by Engine Books in 2013. Her first novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, was chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award, and received fiction honors in the 2003 Massachusetts... Read More →