Writer’s Workshop

The best writing advice I ever received wasn’t intended as writing advice. It was in sleepaway camp when I was just 12 years old. My bunkmates and I had congregated on a two-lane bridge over the Delaware River. I was standing beyond the safety railing, staring down at the wind-ruffled water. Three or four others had gone off the bridge without incident ahead of me. Nonetheless, gripped by fear and doubt, I hesitated. “Come on already!” my bunkmates finally all started yelling. “Jump!”