Great writers have understood that if you create a fresh, individual character or a vivid, moving experience you suggest all human experience—all that has gone before and that is yet to come. The more specific and individuated a character is—like Flaubert’s Emma Bovary or Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus or Twain’s Huck Finn—the more universal and archetypal the character can be. If you’re afraid that specificity of detail limits the significance of your characters, you’ll cut yourself off from your most original and vital material.

To establish a particular atmosphere, mood, or tone, you must pay attention to your readers’ short memory for sensation. If the atmosphere is to be foreboding, you must forebode on every page. If it is to be cold, you must chill, not once or twice, but until your readers are shivering. Remember that you’re creating an experience, not just imparting data. Sensory information once said is not enough said. Our own experience tells us that a hangover is a constant presence for its full duration no matter what else we are doing. Don’t be afraid of repetition.