The First Of All Qualities Of A

The Title Always Comes Last. What I Really Work Hard On Is The Beginning. Where Do You Begin? In What Tone Do You Begin? I Almost Have To Have A Scene In My Mind.

There Are Innumerable Writing Problems In An Extended Work. One Book Took A Little More Than Six Years. You, The Writer, Change In Six Years. The Life Around You Changes. Your Family Changes. They Grow Up. They Move Away. The World Is Changing. You're Also Learning More About The Subject. By The Time You're Writing The Last Chapters Of The Book, You Know Much More Than You Did When You Started At The Beginning.

To Hold The Reader's Attention, You Have To Bring The Person Who's Reading The Book Inside The Experience Of The Time: What Was It Like To Have Been Alive Then? What Were These People Like As Human Beings?

Why Limit Yourself To The Experience Of Your Own Relatively Brief Time On Earth, According To Your Biological Clock, When The Whole Realm Of The Human Experience Reaching Back Infinitely Far Is Available To You?

A Nation That Forgets Its Past Can Function No Better Than An Individual With Amnesia.