A tried and true pathway into writing

 

“Ido feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentenceand then another, you end up with a good story.”  – Amy Hempel

 

Bornin Chicago on Dec. 14, 1951 Hempel is a short story writer and journalist whoteaches creative writing at The Michener Center for Writers in Austin, TX. 

 

Termeda “minimalist” writer, she is one of just a handful of writers who has built areputation based solely on short fiction; many of the stories published in her multi-award-winning,best-selling Collected Stories of Amy Hempel.  Her"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" is one of the mostanthologized stories of the last quarter century.

 

Hempel’spathway to creative writing came through journalism and she continues to writefor both magazines and journals.  She recommends that journalistic path as a good way to enter the writing world, something I did myself.

“Istarted writing by doing small related things but not the thing itself,circling it and getting closer,” she said.  “I had no idea how towrite fiction.  So, I did journalism because there were rules I could learn. Youcan teach someone to write a news story. They might not write a great one, butyou can teach that pretty easily”