When one sentence just won’t do
A writing professor at Harvard once recalled a frequent experience. Asked at a cocktail party what his job was, he would explain that he was a nonfiction writer. How interesting! The conversation would continue inexorably and not unpleasantly through a series of questions about his previously published work. Finally, the dreaded inquiry came. “What are you working on now?” It may seem benign on the page, but consider the many pitfalls of answering. Like questions about my plans after graduation or about whether those jeans fit nicely across the back, this question is a trap. Answer too elaborately, and you risk cornering yourself into a never-ending and increasingly complex conversational wormhole with someone who was really only asking out of courtesy anyway. Give a cursory reply, and you instantly reduce your life, your work, and your aspirations to careless inconsequence. The key to mastering these situations, the professor pointed out, is to...