Reading Philip Roth's masterpiece, The Plot Against America and I keep shouting "Genius!" as I read passage after passage. What is it really at the root of his genius?
I think it's a matter of time.
The enemy of great writing is impatience. The urgent need to finish before the real work of digging for the truth has been done. Whenever I teach writing, it always boils down to this question:
Are you willing to put in the necessary work hours to uncover the truth of your characters and their story?
Sadly, most writers are not.
The writer who takes the time necessary to stop and ponder and listen to where the true center of each of his characters lives will achieve truth in storytelling. And this firmly grounded truth, an undeniable truth that you simply know when you see it? That's what makes a solid writer a great writer.
The rest, the ones who pull out "complicating details" in order to dress up their worlds in the accoutrements of actual life, those are the hacks.
