poetry might be the key

- You said before that you’ve always been able to tell a story, but that you had to learn how to write. Please explain how you went about learning.
- I went to the poets. I read poetry, I listened to it on tape, I read it out loud. I tuned my ear to the music of language. Then I read my own prose out loud and could hear whether it cut the mustard.

Author Janet Fitch (who wrote White Oleander) is being interviewd about her writing.