Trust Your Story

Over the years, I’ve talked to a lot of writers about their writing processes, and specifically about why they do certain things. I’m always exceedingly bemused by the people who claim to put specific types of events or incidents or characters in their stories (or leave them out) for  specific reasons that have little or nothing to do with the story they’re writing.

For instance, the writer who always ends her stories with last-minute justifications for the villain’s mass murder (“It was an a...