A trait that I think is essential to good writing is honesty. There is something about an honest work that is recognizable and makes that work — whatever the genre — amazing. Take Maya Angelou‘s book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. She admits to pulling a gun on a teenager in a gang that was bullying her son. Or another of my favorite authors — Anne LaMott, who wrote Traveling Mercies. If all psycho-christians were as honest and forthright as Anne and did not continually use “church-speak” and say things like, “George Bush prays every night so I trust him,” or take Ann Coulter seriously, then, well, I might actually listen to them.
But they don’t. People, in general, are not honest.
I say people, and that certainly includes me. more »
