Topic: Adv ice on Writing

10-second review: How to become a writer.

Title: “How I Write: Thomas Lynch.” Interview by Cindi Lieske. The Writer (October 2010), 58.

Advice: “Just keep reading until it makes you want to write.”

Comment: In one of my early curriculum workshops in the 1970’s, I invited a group of people who write for a living, including  journalists, writers of children’s books, and even a lawyer, to discuss writing with us. The participants in the workshop were fifth- and sixth-grade teachers and our purpose was to create writing curriculum for the upper elementary school. These writers appeared, one by one, on succeeding  days. The first question I asked them was, “How did you learn to write?” With only one exception’ each of them said, on different days, “I never learned to write in school. But I was never without a book in my hand.” I have since asked that question of any number of people whom I admired as skilled writers. Most of them said the same thing. Reading is the key to writing. RayS.