English Class

Every now and then, I’ll get an email from someone who wonders if they can be a good writer despite having done horribly in English class. My usual response to that is to tell them not to worry. English, as a subject, is not exactly geared toward producing good writers, especially when it comes to creative writing (i.e., fiction).

To some extent, this makes perfect sense. The majority of people have no great interest in doing creative writing. Instead, their interest is in finding stories they e...