Pimp My Writing

Roy Peter Clark helps us understand why ancient story forms dominate pop culture: Years ago, I worked with a high school student who had written a story for the school paper about a wheelchair bowling league. A group of students met with the bowlers and had the chance to see what it was like to overcome a disability. The student wrote a short but inspiring story about the triumph of the human spirit.



Later, she revealed to a class that it had been a horrible experience for all the students at the bowling alley. Some of the wheelchair bowlers were cranky, dismissive, angry, horny, obnoxious. I asked why she hadn't written that. "I wanted to write a good story," she said, "about people…