Coda: At a reading once, a reader asked me the following question: “We’re always told how poetry will help our fiction writing, but how do you think fiction writing improves your poetry?” I’ve thought about this question a lot in the years since. Honestly, I think it helps in so many ways, but perhaps the top three are these: 1) fiction reminds me that I get to make up things and that my allegiance is not to facts but to larger truths, 2) writing character reminds me that voice and personality come from language and cadence and that these things are infinitely malleable, and 3) working with plot and tension asks me to remember the reader, reminding me that the work isn’t about me but rather is about their reading experience. That is, if I expect anyone to be interested, then I had better make things interesting and make interesting things.
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