I researched fiction writing for months before I taught my first class, much of it looking for strong techniques from bestselling authors.

My experience is that an original and compelling idea for a novel is a rare thing.

I researched fiction writing for months before I taught my first class, much of it looking for strong techniques from bestselling authors.

On opening sentences: "If in the first chapter a hurricane is going to blow down an oak tree which falls through the kitchen roof, there's no need to first describe the kitchen."

I can only write one novel at a time. The author of the Perry Mason novels, Erle Stanley Gardner, often worked on four novels simultaneously, and produced a million words a year. I'm envious.

My students - all adults - bring a lot of writing skill to the first class, and they and I get better as the class progresses.

I need time to develop the idea into a plot before I talk about it.