Overnight Success and Other Fables of the Writing Life

Overnight Successand Other Fables of the Writing Lifeby Caroline Leavitt
Way back when I was 28, I first got serious about writing, I had my career trajectory all planned out. I was going to publish a few books of short stories, then, when I made my reputation with them, I’d try my hand at a novel. I collected enough rejection letters to wallpaper my apartment. I kept going, sure it would happen. But when it did, everything was vastly different than what I expected.

My first published short s...