In Lorrie Moore’s beloved short story “How to Become a Writer,” the start of an author’s journey is less than a soaring triumph. “First, try to be something, anything, else,” Moore writes. “A movie star/astronaut. A movie star/missionary. A movie star/kindergarten teacher. President of the World.” Moore knows it won’t work out, but it will help your art: “Fail miserably. It is best if you fail at an early age—say, fourteen. Early, critical disillusionment is necessary so that at fifteen you can write long haiku sequences about thwarted desire.”
Moore’s how-to is nominally the story of one writer’s path, but the story charts what drives any of us to write: longing. Searching. Those thwarted desires. Such a road may inevitably be less glamorous and less straightforward even than “movie star/astronaut,” but Moore’s protagonist might have felt a little less lost if she’d had other writers to lean on along the way. After all, you can take classes or read deeply to develop your craft, and ample resources exist to help you navigate the world of publishing at pw.org alone—but who’s going to guide you through the in-between, the everyday stuff of the difficult, audacious, profound work of writing? Your community.
And so we asked writers to share their advice on these untaught essentials, from keeping yourself at the desk (and off the internet) to mingling at a book party. If you can’t be President of the World, you can at least write your truth. We’re here in solidarity, with tips for formatting that ungainly manuscript and brewing coffee to see your book through.
In this guide:
• How to Think About the Value of a Creative Writing Degree by Molly McCully Brown
• How to Pick an MFA Program by Lyzette Wanzer
• How to Write the Personal Essay for MFA Applications by René Steinke
• How to Make the Most of Your Time in an MFA by Dan Beachy-Quick
• How to Keep Hold of 120,000 Words—or, How to Work With a Manuscript in Word by Claire Fuller
• How to Brew Good Coffee by Michael Ruhlman
• How to Keep Writing When You’re Convinced Your Book Is a Disaster by Crystal Hana Kim
• How to Kill Your Darlings by Matt Bell
• How to Write When You’d Rather Be Online by Ruth Madievsky
• How to Write an Author Bio by Samantha Browning Shea
• How to Negotiate a Freelance Rate—or, How to Know Your Worth by Destiny O. Birdsong
• How to Mingle at a Book Thing by Camille T. Dungy
• How to Protect Your Time by Ananda Lima
