The great paradox of the writing life is that to be a good writer, you must be both interested in the world around you and comfortable working in solitude for hours on end. Fiction Writers Workshop, 2nd edition is designed to help writers foster a strong sense of independence, of being and thinking on their own, of becoming both disciplined and self-evaluative (not self-critical) in order to accomplish for themselves what others seek out in classroom groups. This comprehensive guide contains all of the key elements of a writing workshop: clear instruction illustrated by contemporary and classic works, innovative exercises and methods to gauge progress, and