The students realize that it's their life I'm talking about: it's out of balance, they're struggling to put it into balance. How are they going to do it?

When you do enough research, the story almost writes itself. Lines of development spring loose and you'll have choices galore.

In life two negatives don't make a positive. Double negatives turn positive only in math and formal logic. In life things just get worse and worse and worse.

Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.

God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

To connect to people at the deepest level, you need stories.