So, as I’m bound down by nonfiction—one down, two to go—I’m still working on fiction. My current project, beyond about a dozen stories ready to submit, is converting one of my published stories into a novel. I’m a self-taught writer. I’ve never taken a composition class. I don’t know the conventions of plotting out a story other than by having read many, many books. I also know that many classic writers of the western canon weren’t trained writers either. Our society seems to think you have to have a degree to be able to do anything. While I don’t doubt that degrees help, what is missing is the awareness that sometimes writing skill is a gift. Gifts benefit from development, sure. Today, however, if you majored in something else and you never prospered enough to afford to get that MFA, you’ll find the establishment a struggle. All of which is to say, I hope I’m doing this right. I’ve written seven novels so far. A famo...
Blog of a struggling writer.