“A Writer’s Job is to Guide the Reader through a Stress Exercise. As an author I write fiction because I recognize that I am performing a service to my readers. They are looking for an emotional exercise, and it is my job to deliver. If I write unformed fiction—stories that have no ends, stories that are ambiguous in the end, or stories that have displeasing ends—I’m not fulfilling the trust that readers place in me. I’m not doing the job that they’re paying me for. In such a case, I will rightfully lose my readership.”