We don’t want to offer writing tips—we still have too much to learn—but we love reading tips. Dennis O’Neil (“Dennis O’Neil: Mark Twain and the Seven Basic Plots,” www.comicmix.com, April 24, 2014) presents a pretty exhaustive list of tips. We like the last one: “Employ a simple, straightforward style.” No one is likely to give you an award for such a style but at least it will have the advantage of being in synch with your characters’ level of speech.