How Jane Austen Made Me a Better Writer

Her novel EMMA showed me how stupid I’d been

Jane Austen, colorized version. Wikimedia Commons

Returning to high school after nearly a year as a teenage dropout runaway, I had good intentions about attending classes and completing assignments, two resolutions I’d failed at in the past. With every new school year, I’d vow to be a model student, but by October of every year since 7th grade, I was skipping classes…