Writer’s Corner: Instruct or Amuse

Henry James, c.1882 (Library of Congress)

You could do much worse than get writing advice from the late and very great Henry James. Sure, you wouldn’t listen to what the old man had to say (nothing, most likely, on structuring a chase scene). But in almost any other instance, the man who could write both a masterful drawing-room melodrama likeThe Portrait of a Lady and a cracking good ghost story likeThe Turn of the Screw deserves to be heeded.

To that end, consider this imprecation from his188...