Whatever dialect you choose to use, make sure you’re doing it justice. Unless you’re from the town or city or state or region that you’re writing about, and so know, firsthand, the details and words and accents and how people speak, make sure to do your research. Be thorough. The last thing you want to do is write a novel in Jamaican Patois and get everything wrong, because you’re translating everything literally, ignoring the cadence or common phrases for things and situations, and so on.

First, read widely. Pick a few books that, as I like to say, are “hard to kick holes through). There’s a reason some books are “unputdownable.” Sure, authors can hook you. A lot do. But books (and authors) that are successful keep you guessing. They provide insights and aphorisms that make you see the world in different ways. They continue building upon the hook they put into your lip and give you more hooks to make you stay. Which books do that for you?

The great William Faulkner compares reading to a carpenter’s apprenticeship, encouraging writers to analyze both good and bad work. Stephen King emphasizes that reading is a mandatory tool for writing. A.L. Kennedy, who has written a lot of fiction and nonfiction (including one of my favorite books, On Bullfighting, advises reading broadly and deeply to absorb good writing. And Francine Prose, who I met in grad school at the University of Tampa, says, “If we want to write, it makes sense to read