David Bergen 2

For me as an apprentice writer, the relief I found in reading Here the Dark was the very misgivings I mentioned above. 

Alice (there she is again!) Munro is so consistently magnificent (I'm running out of adjectives) it has been difficult for me to imagine ever writing anything as good as even my least favourite story by her. But in this book are stories of a quality that I can see myself attaining some long day from now if I work at it.

Not stories like his. He is definitely a literary writer -- and sometimes this strikes me as unnecessarily contrived. Oooh, see how sophisticated this is. But sometimes it's a wonderful structure. His stories often do not end in a finished resolution. It's as though we have experienced part of complex lives and relationships just like real life. But they have not been tied up into a neat bow. Just like real life.

So, the counsel of this developing writer is to read mostly good stuff, don't try to copy it (that will never work well) but glory in the realization that our own good work, accessing our own muse, is possible. 

Persistence, even (or possibly especially) in the face of lousy results, is one key. This I know for certain. Let us all, as a writing group colleague says, "Keep writing!"