From bestselling and award-winning author and professor Elizabeth McCracken comes an irresistible look at the art of writing.
Writing can feel like an endless series of decisions. How does one face the blank page? Move a character around a room? Deal with time? Undertake revision? The good and bad news is that in fiction writing, there are no definitive answers to such questions: writers must come up with their own. Elizabeth McCracken, author of bestselling novels, National Book Award long-listed story collections, and a highly praised memoir, has been teaching for more than thirty-five years, guiding her many students through their own answers.
In A Long Game, she shares insights gleaned along the way, offering practical tips and incisive thoughts about her own work as an artist. The book covers:
- Understanding and developing characters
- Plot, and what to do if it eludes you
- Her thoughts on common writing "rules"
- And of course, the Butter Cow Lady of the Iowa State Fair and her work as it relates to revision
Writing "is a long game," she notes. "What matters is that you learn to get work done in the way that is possible for you, through consistency or panic. Through self-recrimination or self-delusion or self-forgiveness: every life needs all three."
As much a book about the life of a working artist as it is a guide to thinking about fiction, A Long Game is a revelatory and indispensable resource for any writer.
"There are so many people on your holiday list who want to be writers. And this book is wonderfully different. It's a lot edgier than most books about how to write. It's very truthful. And I find that almost any time there is a terrific debut author, a novel that I really love, Elizabeth McCracken has been that person's teacher. And she has wonderful, wonderful tough love, direct, and very funny advice on how to be the writer you want to be." - Ann Patchett, PBS News Hour
"The Story Prize-winning McCracken knows a lot about writing fiction, but think of her new title less as a craft book and more as a guidebook for first-time tourists and seasoned travelers alike. The author reminds us all that 'no process is wrong that leads to the first draft of a book." Or, as McCracken once said of bowling: "I like the fact that it's difficult, impossible to perfect, but people are really devoted to it.' This volume is all strikes, no spares." - Los Angeles Times
"Thoughtful, encouraging insights from her own experiences writing as well as her experiences reading and responding to years of student writing. . . . There are also very practical discussions of specific elements of fiction: structure, characterization, and various ways to think about plot." - The Clarion-Ledger
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books, including The Hero of This Book, The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories five times, and have won three Pushcart Prizes, two National Magazine Awards, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.