Lord Byron

Chances are, you’ve encountered a melodramatic death scene featuring tuberculosis or another chronic illness. The death scenes, often visually beautiful, increase audience empathy for the characters. They stereotypically catalyze positive character growth and heighten the emotions in a plot.

At times Lavery slips into what he calls “cultural interludes,” riffing off well-known aspects of culture such as religion, Greek mythology and the Romantic poets.

On my computer, I wrote troves of poetry and metaphorical stories, burdening Microsoft Word documents with lamentations about the depression I had been dealing with since fourth grade, and about my parents divorcing. Alone in my room, symbolic pen in my hand, I began, in earnest, to cement my career as a writer.