Enlivening me this morning is this talk by Erica Jong in February at the PEN World Voices Festival. Jong presents five rules for writing that she has learned during the course of her life. It makes for enjoyable and instructive listening. You won’t sit idly by and daydream during it, not if you’re a reader or writer.
There are many writers I find amazing, but none surpasses Anne Tyler for (seeming to) speak directly to me. I’ve come up with the simile “like receiving a new mother’s caress” to describe how I feel while reading Anne Tyler’s books. All her books zero in on some aspect of being human in the gentlest sense.
I just read a terrific article based on a rare interview with this author. If you’re a fan, you’ll want to read the whole thing. But excerpted below is the part that was of immediate interest to me because it describes my own approach.