How to Become a Writer

Lin Lu was born into a farming family. Influenced by his father, he began reading a great deal of literature, which inspired him to write novels and set his heart on becoming a writer. But for someone who had only completed five and a half years of primary school, becoming a writer seemed like an absurd fantasy, and he suffered repeated failures along the way. At twenty-five, he became the political team leader of a production brigade, leading the farmers of Gushu Village in their battles against nature as they dreamed of accomplishing something great. But his ambitions never came to fruition. After clashing with the production brigade leader and the officials stationed in the village, he had no choice but to resign. He then spent six years teaching at a school. During those years, he taught by day and wrote a full-length novel on the side, but the publisher rejected it, so he turned to novellas and short stories, with little success. After reform and opening up, he moved to the county seat and became a contractor, taking construction jobs in summer and writing in winter. He went on to publish 200,000 words of novellas and short stories. Later, he studied at a short-term writers’ program at the Lu Xun Literature Institute. When he returned to his hometown, he took his 200,000 words of work to see the county magistrate. The magistrate arranged a position for him as a staff writer at the county Federation of Literary and Art Circles. His novella "Conscience" took the top spot in the fiction section of China Writers, making him an overnight success.