Breaking the Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction

I checked this out from the library before going off to WisCon (as part of a small "anthology orgy" with On the Couch: Great American Stories about Therapy, and Caught in the Organ Draft: Biology in Science Fiction, which was edited by Asimov).

They're all overdue now - I am renewing this online because I am just starting it now.

Some comments quoted from Terry McMillan's preface, which are trying to help me write:

"Writing is personal. Try to write the kind of stories you'd like to read. Do not write to impress. Do not write to prove to a reader how much you know, but instead write in order to know.

...
Everyone has a different opinion about what a good story should do and here are a few that I love:

'A story is a war. It is sustained and immediate combat.'

'Your character should want something and want it intensely. It need not be melodramatic, earth-shattering or tangible. But it should be important to them whether or not they get it.'

'A good story is a power struggle between equal forces. Something keeps getting in the way of the protagonist from achieving whatever they desire.'