“everything seems to apply—what you overhear on a city bus is exactly what your character would say on the page you’re writing. Wherever you go, you meet part of your story.” Eudora Welty

Listen.

As writers, we always need to be listening. If we’re already in that story or just gleaning it, we will learn how to communicate our images—more importantly, our understandings—through this second tool of listening.

I don’t use listening in the same way that my daughter listens to my words, and copies them when the occasion permits. This way, half of my communicating has lost its meaning and is simply parroted. Though I wouldn’t hold it against a three year old, writers need practice of a much more attentive lis...

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