This season, while promoting my fourth novel, I was asked about certain "truisms of the trade" that are frequently served up as gospel for writers. But how true are they, really? Upon reflection I have to say--not very. At best, they are half-truths: at worst, they are straightjackets for budding...

Recently I conducted a perfectly random, unscientific survey among writers and readers to make a list of words-we-are-way-too-weary-of. Now, as someone who loves words and whose very survival depends on them, I hardly mean to condemn any particular word to the firing squad.
Rather, this is an informal assembly...