Long Game : How to Write Fiction

A writing life, I’ve come to believe, is a years-long process of casting away everything you once believed for sure.

Elizabeth McCracken has been writing for most of her life: bestselling novels, critically acclaimed short story collections, and unstinting memoirs. For over three decades, she has also taught creative writing to generations of students. In A Long Game, she shares all she has learned along the way, deconstructing received wisdom about fiction whilst playfully tackling the mysteries that are inherent to writing and creativity.

Writing, she suggests, is about being in it for the long haul: not just about polishing prose, but how paying attention to language, character, and plot widens one’s understanding of the world. Both an insight into the life of a working artist and an indispensable resource for writers, A Long Game is a future classic: a delightful, intelligent account of what it means to write and live a creative life.

''How reassuring it is to have writers like Elizabeth McCracken among us'' Yiyun Li

''Elizabeth McCracken is one of America''s finest writers'' Garth Greenwell