Perhach - Welcome to the writers life: how to design your writing practice, reading practice, writers craft, and writing business

We humans have a tendency to be hyperaware of those people who make difficult things look easy: famous athletes, superstar pop divas, best-selling debut novelists. They seem to come out of the cosmos fully formed and enormously talented, but when you take the time to delve into their histories, you discover that their success is a result of years spent learning, practicing, and mastering.

So it is with the author of this book, Paulette Perhach. You may have first heard of her when her groundbreaking essay, A Story of a Fuck Off Fund, went, as Elle put it, super-viral. Her words reached more than a million people, thanks in part to a tweeted recommendation from beloved UK writer Caitlin Moran. The piece was reprinted in the New York Observer, the Huffington Post, and publications from Israel to Belgium to Australia. It struck up conversations and spin-offs in Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Jezebel, and Elle, including a discussion with Senator Elizabeth Warren. More than six months later, the Guardian referenced her story, showing that she had truly created a cultural touchstone.

You might also know Paulette from one of her whip-smart pieces in the New York Times, Slate, or Marie Claire. Shes good, you might have thought, a natural-born writer. Paulette is talented, to be certain, but it was her years of hard work and deep practice that paid off in these coveted bylines.

She would be the first to admit, however, that she let her desire to be a creative writer languish for years. But she righted herself on her path and found success, and now shes sharing her process and all shes learned with you, dear writer.

Waityou say youre not a writer, not a real writer, not yet? Pshaw. Perhaps this writing thing is new to you. Maybe you havent read the classics or gotten a degree in writing, but you yearn to put your life and experiences or your wild imaginings or your ideas for how to make the world a better place on paper.

Or youve been at this for years but are stuck in an unending eddy of your own making, not quite sure how to break free of that which keeps you stuck. Thats OK.

Heres the thing: were all beginners first. Every writer who made it has stood where you stand now: at the starting line, wondering if she has the stuff, even if that starting line keeps shifting with the years. It wasnt until I was thirty-five that I got brave enough to try a first book. I know other published writers who started much later.

Some of us are lucky enough to find wise mentors and skilled teachers to lead the way. I certainly did (and still do) take classes and workshops taught by some famous and some relatively obscure writers, all with gifts to share. Ive read books by writers who have a certain genius for breaking down the process, dissecting and examining it even while creating magic on the page. John Gardner, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Strunk Jr., William Zinsser, Anne Lamott, Charles BaxterIve read and learned from the best.

In addition to writing novels for the past twenty years, Ive been a freelancer, an editor, a writing teacher, and a mentor. It was in my narrative-structure class at Seattles renowned Hugo House that I first met Paulette. She was perhaps the youngest student in the room, but I knew she would go far with her writing. She listened without bias, wanting to learn. She asked questions, formulating her own ideas, and she wrotea lot. Even better, she wrote in her own voicefunny, smart, emotionally honestwhich is half the battle for many writers.

When a scholarship became available for a conference where I would be teaching, I thought immediately of Paulette. I knew shed jump in, participate, practice, and glean everything she could from the experience in order to advance her quest. The conference was on a small island in the Puget Sound, accessible only by a long drive to a multistop ferry and then another drive around the island to the opposite side. I offered Paulette a ride from Seattle, and we spent the hours in that car talking rapidly and nonstop about this passion we shared: putting words together in such a way that someone else will be glad we did. A friendship was born, but its not our friendship that leads me to write this foreword for Welcome to the Writers Life. Its my belief in Paulette as a writer who has much to share with you.

This past summer, as I read an advance copy of Welcome to the Writers Life, I felt transported to that time in my life when I strove harder than I ever had to be a published writer. But in the book, I also found wisdom for my writing life now, after publishing five novels and hundreds of articles and essays, because this path is full of dips and rises, hairpin turns and occasional dead ends. Like all the creative arts and professions, our jobs are never really done; the journey is a constant work in progress. Welcome to the Writers Life will remain on my shelf of go-to writing and inspiration books, alongside Lamott, Baxter, Gardner, and Strunk.

By coming here, you have found your own wise and caring mentor. This book is filled with Paulettes insight, knowledge, sweat equity, and heart. Here youll benefit from her tried-and-true experience, clear tactics, worksheets, pointers, resources, and comprehensive primer on craft. Not only is Paulette a great teachershes fun, savvy, and an inherently good person to hang with.