PF Kluge, journalist

It sounds old-fashioned I know, but there you have it. I was a reporter on hometown, high school, college, local, national newspapers. I was a magazine staffer, a magazine freelancer. A journalist is a good thing to be while waiting for life to give you the experience and perspective that go into fiction. You gather material—“Get what you can and go with what you have.” You learn deadlines, and an un-neurotic approach to writing. You deal with editors, you connect with your audience, you see your work in print. Best of all, you share your ups and downs with other writers who are in the same boat. That’s something you miss later on, writing books alone. One more thing: once a reporter, always a reporter. Some things never leave you: a love of conciseness, a sense of narrative pace, an instinct for what is important and what doesn’t matter, a knack for interviewing. And this: a life-long enmity for bullshit.