"diamond cut" by devi laskar

I’ve come across some old notebooks that I kept as a graduate student and I’m so happy to read through them again: lots and lots of great tips and strategies from professors who are also acclaimed writers who have consistently written and published amazing books.

I’m going to take a few days this coming week to distill their W.O.W (words of wisdom) – I found some more of my notes from visiting professor Ethan Canin’s workshop. His class was only offered one summer in New York and there was a small band of students who met for three hours every day during the workweek.

Ethan Canin is a supremely talented writer and a great teacher. That summer, he spoke openly about his training as a medical doctor, and the writing habits he formed that led him to early success. He was just 28 years old when he published his first collection of short stories, Emperor of the Air. He currently teaches at the University of Iowa.

Today’s W.O.W.:

1. PLOT and CHARACTER development together make a good story, but PLOT and CHARACTER and IDEA/THEME development make a wonderful story. Try to give life to that idea that first made you want to write the story you’re knee-deep in right now.

2. Bricks can fall on people’s heads but only to COMPLICATE a story, not to RESOLVE it. Put another way, this means you can’t write a story that has problems that you’re not willing to address or even try to work through, but only want to end by saying “and then he died in a plane crash. The end.” You can have the plane crash, but only if it comes on the first page. We as readers want to know what happens after the character survives the plane crash.

What was the idea that first inspired the writing you are doing now? And what are you hoping will resolve an element of your story that might instead be used to complicate it?

Devi Laskar is a founding member of the Book Writing World. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, is a rabid Tar Heel basketball fan and has three poems coming out in the next issue of The Tule Review (February 2012).