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He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard.”
“You know,” she said excitedly, “your living room could be a perfect dream! Couldn’t it, George? Can’t you see it?” “Yup,” said her husband. “Nice, all right.” “Just tear out all this white-painted woodwork,” Grace said, her eyes narrowing. “Panel it all in knotty pine wiped with linseed oil with a little umber added. Cover the couch in lipstick red—red red. Know what I mean?”
The overriding spirit is to be kind to the audience, to be helpful in their difficult job of getting imaginatively engaged with a story. “Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for” was one suggestion. “Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water” was another. Also, “Be a sadist. Make awful things happen to your characters in order that we can see what they are made of.” And, of course, “start as close to the end as possible.”
“It’s the writer’s job to stage confrontations,”
