Write Away Essays:

by David Benjamin Any time a writer decides to toy with time, to alter chronology as a narrative device, the risk is reader confusion. The writer also risks blowback for historical mistakes or by trips to the future that strain credibility. The temptation for time-travel must be executed with originality and bolstered by research.  ……

by David Benjamin As I blunder through the first dozen chapters of a new novel, called Cheat, I can’t help reflect on the crisis of confidence affects every novelist, no matter how experienced, at the beginning—and in the middle—of every project.   Even for a veteran author, beginning a novel is a daunting prospect. Continuing……

by David Benjamin One of the secrets to writing fluid prose is to be educated in the meter, rhythms, discipline and wordplay of great poems. For a writer, the consequence of not appreciating the poetry of prose is to hit the sort of sour note that turns off the reader.    For three years in……

by David Benjamin Since its beginning, literature has been hounded by bluenoses with blue pencils, trying to excise words and ideas offensive to the current legions of decency and orthodoxy. Every writer, sooner or later, has to decide a response to the relentless force of censorship.   Last year, prior to the official “launch” event……

For a writer, more than for anyone in any other profession, you are what you have read. The story of your life, unless you’re Don Quixote or Captain Ahab, is not enough to captivate readers. by David Benjamin   Dr. Seuss ruined my life. I was in first grade. My teacher led her class to……

by David Benjamin We remember one of the last century’s literary immortals, J.D. Salinger, by one great novel, The Catcher in the Rye, ten short stories and a few insignificant novellas. He apparently stopped writing anything 45 years before he died. It’s conceivable that, while living all that time in seclusion somewhere in New Hampshire,……

by David Benjamin While reading one of Louis Bayard’s historical mysteries, The Pale Blue Eye, I paused to highlight a line and, as I did so, thought about the writer’s ability (or inability) to weave imagery, sound and sensation into a linear narrative, ideally without divertting the story’s flow. Bayard’s line reads, “Her petticoats always……

by David Benjamin Before the liberating moment when I forsook the quest for a new literary rep, I pitched to one prospective agent a novel called The Voice of the Dog. I got a swift brushoff from the guy’s assistant, whose most salient comment—although obtuse—was: “I just can’t seem to go for animal protagonists. It……

by David Benjamin Recently, during a book talk, a reader asked a question that stumped me for a moment. “When you start a novel,” he asked, “do you concentrate on plot or character development?” After a pregnant pause, I chose “plot” and bumbled my way through an explanation of how characters tend to be exposed……