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After years and years of creative writing and journalism classes, I could describe my weekend two different ways.

First, the writing workshop way: "I walked through the drafty concrete warehouse Salvation Army, shedding my blue wrinkled jacket that had molded perfectly to fit my skinny frame. I turned around, and my precious jacket had disappeared."

Then, the more emotional, explanatory way: "I felt melancholy last weekend when I went to the Salvation Army, wearing the jacket I've worn since college. While I was trying on some sweaters, somebody stole my favorite jacket. I wandered around the store full of suspicion, trying to figure out who was the dirty thief."

Do you get it? That's the difference between showing you what I felt and telling you what I felt. Too many writing workshops and writing websites will tell you that you should never describe emotions or talk about the feelings surrounding a scene; instead they urge you to describe the scene in a way that shows the emotional context.

Over at The Elegant Variation, novelist and creative writing professor Joshua Henkin has a guest essay called "The Great Lie of Writing Workshops," exploring the dangers of following that advice to destructive lengths. It will help remind you that there are absolutely no Hard and Fast Rules for Writing, and if you are looking for ironclad rules, you picked the wrong profession. Check it out:

"The real reason people choose to show rather than tell is that it's so much easier to write "The big brown torn vinyl couch" than it is to describe internal emotional states without resorting to canned and sentimental language. In other words, "show, don't tell" provides cover for writers who don't want to do what's hardest (but most crucial) in fiction."

If you loved this clear-headed advice, check out Henkin's guest essay about plotting and timelines in his novel over at Beatrice.com. There's a lot of structural advice to help you with your own work.