GOOD DESCRIPTIONS: A LESSON FROM 'THE GOOD LIAR'

The first rule of writing is: read

You've heard this before, and you'll hear it again, but today I want to highlight why good writers are first good readers. Reading other people's craft -- both good and bad -- helps us immensely in our own writing. Reading everything, including and except for the genre we're writing, allows us to expand our capabilities and create our best work, unique to us.

I just started Nicholas Searle's The Good Liar, for review next week in my newspaper. But, even in the...