Creek Walk and Other Stories . Molly is a professor of creative writing, Pulitzer Prize nominee, and winner of the Flannery O'Connor award for short fiction. The advice is given by fictional character Ellen Trennel to her class of creative writing students. If you want to be a better writer, don't start a story with your character waking up in bed in the morning. Don't have anyone look into a bathroom mirror.
All right is two words no matter what the dictionary says.
Commas go inside quotes when followed by attributives. If you are ever tempted to put your head to the keyboard and laugh out loud at what you've just written, you probably shouldn't drink wine while you're working. Avoid the word got , avoid the word gut , avoid the word snuck . Drugged is not the past tense of drag , though it should be. Don't change tense in midstory or point of view in midparagraph.