A tried and true pathway into writing

 

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

 

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

 

Termed a “minimalist” writer, she is one of just a handful of writers who has built a reputation 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 most anthologized stories of the last quarter century.

 

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

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