First, a confession. This post is a cheat, because I’m devoting the months of October and November to some hard-core writing (PST contest entries and NaNoWriMo even though it’s not official any longer). All my writing neurons are tied up with that, so I’m falling back on an older piece that (to my great sadness) is still relevant. I hope you’ll find this never-before-published-outside-a-writing-class-I-taught article to be helpful at best, and amusing at worst.

Here’s an excerpt from “...