title: Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers
author:  Carolyn See 
description: This guide to literary success is wonderfully original and smart and funny and down-to-earthjust what desperate beginning writers desperately need.<br />Alison Lurie<br /><br />This is a terrific and extremely useful book for anyone who wants to write. Carolyn See is brilliant and funny, crabby and tender and wise.<br />Anne Lamott<br /><br />Wise, witty, practical, mordant, funny, this is the only guide to becoming a writer that may actually work. Its a primer on Carolyn See: great artist, large soul.<br />James Ellroy<br /><br />Carolyn See doesnt just tell you to sharpen your pencils, she shows you how to sharpen your wits.<br />Rita Mae Brown<br /><br />After reading Making a Literary Life, I have decided to abandon my present career and become an aspirant writer, this time guided by Carolyn Sees wonderfully instructive (and readable) book.<br />William F. Buckley, Jr.<br /><br />Carolyn See has been giving me lessons on writing and living since my first book came out, and when Carolyn See talks, I obey. I bow down in gratitude. We should rejoice at this serious, joyful, irreverent, and very practical book.<br />Elizabeth Benedict<br /><br />If everyone who wants to be a writer would read this book there would be many more good writers, many more happy writers, and editors would be so overwhelmed by sweetness they would accept many more good books. So what are you waiting for? Read it!<br />Ursula K. Le Guin<br /><br /><br /><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>
zlib_text: ### About the Author
  
  
  I live in the beautiful Cotswold countryside with my family, and I’m a true
  country girl at heart. I first started writing when my mother gave me a
  writing kit for Christmas, and once I started I just couldn’t stop. _Living
  Dangerously_ was my first novel and since then, I haven’t looked back.
  
  
  Ideas for books are everywhere, and I’m constantly inspired by the people and
  places around me. From watching TV (yes, it is research) to overhearing
  conversations, I love how my writing gives me the chance to taste other
  people’s lives and try all the jobs I’ve never had. Each of my books explores
  a different profession or background and my research has helped me bring these
  to life. I’ve been a porter in an auction house, tried my hand at pottery,
  refurbished furniture, delved behind the scenes of a dating website, and I’ve
  even been on a Ray Mears survival course.
  
  
  I love being a writer; to me there isn’t a more satisfying and pleasing thing
  to do. I particularly enjo