The Worst Letters Come From

I Was On The Verge Of Tears, So I Turned And Ran Past The Trailer And Along The Field Road Until I Was Safely Out Of Their Sight. Then I Ducked Into The Cotton And Waited For Friendly Voices. I Sat On The Hot Ground, Surrounded By Stalks Four Feet Tall, And I Cried, Something I Really Hated To Do.

In Life, Finding A Voice Is Speaking And Living The Truth. Each Of You Is An Original. Each Of You Has A Distinctive Voice. When You Find It, Your Story Will Be Told. You Will Be Heard.

The Two Mistakes That Come To Mind Are People Who Introduce A Flood Of Characters In The First Few Pages. Where The Reader Has To Stop And Get Out A Flow Chart And Has To Figure Out Who Is Who. And You Just Can't Do That - Introduce The First Four Generations Of A Character's Family In The First Chapter. You Can Introduce Four Or Five Characters At The Most In The First Chapter. Another Mistake Is To Use Big Words That Are Not Normally Used In Conversation To Try To Impress Folks With Your Vocabulary.

I Was Tired Of Secrets, Tired Of Seeing Things I Was Not Supposed To See. And So I Just Cried.

The Worst Letters Come From Retired High School English Teachers. They Will Literally Take A Book And Pick It To Pieces And Send Me 14 Pages Of Notes.