Description

Warm, wise and full of practical tips, this book is the ideal guide to every writing life

‘Wonderful tough love, direct, and very funny advice on how to be the writer you want to be’ Ann Patchett

‘For anyone who wants to write a novel, or for anyone who loves reading novels… A Long Game is a joy’ Sunday Times

Write every day
Show, don’t tell
Write what you know
Kill Your Darlings

These are some of the most popular nuggets of advice given to writers, universally agreed to be true. They are all pieces of writing advice that Elizabeth McCracken expertly and persuasively shoots down in A Long Game.

McCracken has been writing for most of her life. Here, she shares insights gleaned along the way, deconstructing received wisdom whilst playfully tackling the mysteries that are inherent to writing and creativity.

A book about the life of an artist and a guide to fiction, A Long Game is a revelatory and indispensable resource and will lead all writers, at any stage of their career, back to the page.

‘A cheering companion that makes writing a less lonely business’ Yiyun Li

‘Elizabeth McCracken is one of America’s finest writers’ Garth Greenwell

‘An irreverent, thought-provoking and ultimately inspiring book about making art’ Rumaan Alam

‘I would encourage every writer to read it’ Rebecca Ivory

Publisher Review

Elizabeth McCracken was my teacher, and it’s a joy to know that now more people will have access to her brilliance through A Long Game… A guidebook for any fiction writer, and a problem-solving and cheering companion that makes writing a less lonely business — Yiyun Li Elizabeth McCracken is that rarest of combinations – a world class writer and a world class writing teacher. With A Long Game she has distilled the electric, inspiring genius, enthusiasm, and wit that she has brought to the classroom for more than three decades and put it into a book that’s practically a masters program in itself — Paul Harding Elizabeth McCracken, one of the greatest, wisest, funniest, and most humane writers you will ever encounter, has written one the greatest, wisest, funniest, and most humane books about writing you will ever read. Have a pen ready. You’ll want to underline sentences on every page that make you stop and think or inwardly cheer or nod in recognition. Most importantly, you’ll want to run to your desk and write. A Long Game is an absolute gift — Cristina Henriquez On the one hand, as a superfan of Elizabeth McCracken, I am cranky that others will benefit from her wisdom. On the other hand, any excuse to spend time with McCracken’s intelligent and unpretentious voice is a gift. This is not just an indispensable craft book but a writer’s argument with herself about what, in fact, constitutes craft — Karan Mahajan A deeply practical book that is also beautifully written, that is also somehow a page turner. It is, like McCracken’s fiction, a crystalline distillation of her warm, funny and no-nonsense voice. When I finished reading it, I couldn’t decide if what I wanted to do immediately was write fiction or just turn back to page one and read it again — Asali Solomon A Long Game is the most generous, idiosyncratic, useful, and companionable book on writing I’ve ever read. It’s basically a portable Elizabeth McCracken. How did we get so lucky? — Antoine Wilson A Long Game is a manual that I will return to again and again, and am so grateful to have it in my toolkit as a writer. To have a book like this to turn to is a comfort and a lifeline. McCracken is as honest and incisive in A Long Game as she is in fiction. I would encourage every writer to read it — Rebecca Ivory A gift for writers, A Long Game is warm and bolstering, straight-talking, practical and tough — Jessica Stanley