Ten Easy Steps to Becoming a Writer: The Art, Craft, Business, and Teaching of Creative Writing

Every year, thousands of aspiring writers are duped by how-to-write books and MFA Creative Writing programs into sacrificing time and money in pursuit of the secret path to bestsellerdom. Ten Easy Steps to Becoming a Writer was written as an antidote to those false promises. The bestselling author of twenty-three books of fiction and nonfiction, Randall Silvis knows whereof he speaks. Called “a creative genius” by bestselling author William Allen, Silvis pulls no punches in his assessment of MFA creative writing programs, the American educational system in general, and the publishing industry.

As much as it is a memoir and a loving consideration of the writing life, Ten Easy Steps to Becoming a Writer is also a scathing assessment of academia and an unflinching critique of the publishing world. In a series of personal and often intimate essays chronicling his forty years as a critically acclaimed writer, Randall Silvis shatters the myth that talent can be created in the classroom or absorbed from a book.

“Creating a successful writer,” Silvis advises in the Introduction to this book, “is a two-entity job; only God and you can turn you into a writer.”

“Randall Silvis seems to have an innate understanding of writing that marks him as a true original, and, to my mind, a true visionary. Each of his books expresses a depth of thought way beyond the reach of most modern writers. He is this country’s most pitch-perfect stylist, and one of a few writers of his generation who will make a difference. He may be the last of a dying species, the creative genius.” William Allen, founder and director emeritus of the Ohio State University Creative Writing Program, bestselling author of Starkweather: Portrait of a Mass Murderer

“Randall Silvis is an author’s author. Those who write for a living (or aspire to do so) could hardly do better than to study his significant body of work, which has been critically acclaimed and recognized throughout the world. An author who never disappoints.” Book Reporter, for First the Thunder

“Randall raises the bar so high that after him it’s difficult to read anything else. Days, and maybe weeks, pass before the feeling begins to fade slightly, but his characters never leave you. They remain alive in the conscious mind, as if they belong to real people whom destiny has brought into your path.”BG Storyteller, for Two Days Gone

“Like Camus' The Stranger and Chopin's The Awakening, Silvis’s In a Town Called Mundomuerto is a powerful novel that deeply touches the reader emotionally and intellectually.” The Bloomsbury Review, for In a Town Called Mundomuerto

“A masterpiece...a work of genius, a novel so filled with such immense imagery and strength as to make you catch your breath.” Over My Dead Body Magazine, for The Boy Who Shoots Crows

“Seriously great writing and highly emotional reading. I couldn’t put the book down. Silvis is top notch and at the top of his game.” My Point Reviews, starred review for When All Light Fails

“Randall Silvis is a masterful storyteller.” The New York Times Book Review, for The Luckiest Man in the World