On Creating Art

In 1980, after my divorce, I decided to study creative writing for the first time, and I took an excellent course through UCLA Extension. I enjoyed the class, but I was nervous about one of its main requirements: that you submit a 5000+ word story to the rest of the class for their critique. I vividly recall how brutal the comments of my fellow students seemed, and how surprised I was when the teacher took me aside and said: “I think they liked it.”

Recently, in preparation for this blog, I h...