ADVERTISEMENT

How to be a writer

Aspiring writers often ask established authors, "How did you do it?" The truth is that there is no single path to literary success. We sent a nonscientific survey to writers participating in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Did they keep a diary as a child? Did they ever have a book rejected? Did they earn a living from writing? We tabulated more than 200 responses to make the board game below. Roll a die and see where the writing life takes you.

Roll die to begin Total 0

Written/researched by Joy Press and Carolyn Kellogg

Illustrations by Paul Duginski

Programming by Jon Schleuss