Have You Earned This Cliche?

"Writers have no real area of expertise. They are merely generalists with a highly inflamed sense of punctuation." --Lorrie Moore

 

The life of a writer is one of loneliness, odd jobs, and trashy apartments. That is, until someone decides you're brilliant.

Writers are a rare breed--I've heard as much. In seventeen years, pop culture and societal stereotypes have taught me all I need to know: Known to flock in coffeeshops and indie bookstores, writus familiaris is comfortable wearing berets, making weekend trips to Maine, and proclaiming "they never really cared for Charles Bukowski."

Maybe so, but I don't think anyone's nailed the definition quite like Lorrie Moore. "How to Become a Writer," a piece from Moore's short story collection "Self Help," chronicles the rapturous hell that is authorship.

This piece is funny, yet the cutting insight within is dizzying. And as someone who's gnawed through forests of pencils, consoled well-meaning parents, and wrestled "syllabic melodies," it struck an oddly familiar chord. Definitely worth a read.