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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction
Reader Score
87%
87% of readers
recommend this book
From bestselling and award-winning author and professor Elizabeth McCracken comes an irresistible look at the art of writing.
Writing can feel like an endless series of decisions. How does one face the blank page? Move a character around a room? Deal with time? Undertake revision? The good and bad news is that in fiction writing, there are no definitive answers to such questions: writers must come up with their own. Elizabeth McCracken, author of bestselling novels, National Book Award long-listed story collections, and a highly praised memoir, has been teaching for more than thirty-five years, guiding her many students through their own answers.
In A Long Game, she shares insights gleaned along the way, offering practical tips and incisive thoughts about her own work as an artist. The book covers:- Understanding and developing characters
- Plot, and what to do if it eludes you
- Her thoughts on common writing "rules"
- And of course, the Butter Cow Lady of the Iowa State Fair and her work as it relates to revision
Writing "is a long game," she notes. "What matters is that you learn to get work done in the way that is possible for you, through consistency or panic. Through self-recrimination or self-delusion or self-forgiveness: every life needs all three."
Book Details
- Publisher: Ecco Press
- Publish Date: Dec 2nd, 2025
- Pages: 208
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 7.80in - 5.34in - 0.93in - 0.55lb
- EAN: 9780063375291
- Categories: • Writing - Fiction Writing• Creativity• Memoirs
About the Author
McCracken, Elizabeth: -
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books, including The Hero of This Book, The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories five times, and have won three Pushcart Prizes, two National Magazine Awards, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.
Praise for this book
"There are so many people on your holiday list who want to be writers. And this book is wonderfully different. It's a lot edgier than most books about how to write. It's very truthful. And I find that almost any time there is a terrific debut author, a novel that I really love, Elizabeth McCracken has been that person's teacher. And she has wonderful, wonderful tough love, direct, and very funny advice on how to be the writer you want to be." - Ann Patchett, PBS News Hour
"The Story Prize-winning McCracken knows a lot about writing fiction, but think of her new title less as a craft book and more as a guidebook for first-time tourists and seasoned travelers alike. The author reminds us all that 'no process is wrong that leads to the first draft of a book." Or, as McCracken once said of bowling: "I like the fact that it's difficult, impossible to perfect, but people are really devoted to it.' This volume is all strikes, no spares." - Los Angeles Times
"Thoughtful, encouraging insights from her own experiences writing as well as her experiences reading and responding to years of student writing. . . . There are also very practical discussions of specific elements of fiction: structure, characterization, and various ways to think about plot." - The Clarion-Ledger
"What McCracken offers in A Long Game is something better than advice: She gives permission. This is a canny approach if you're peeking at the market: Every writer, from a high schooler with a notion to tell a story to a veteran novelist in the middle of a messy draft, needs a voice from somewhere telling them that they're pursuing something difficult but possible. So A Long Game is fit for students of Comp 101 classes and MFA programs, but also weekend hobbyists. But it works because her brand of inspiration isn't cheap uplift, just clear reports from the trenches about the sorts of things that can waylay a writer, both on the page and in life." - Alta
"Infused with the author's signature humility, humanity, and humor, A Long Game is a guide not only to the craft of writing fiction, but also to the art of living as a working writer." - Poets and Writers
"McCracken's deep empathy for others is evident on every page. As much a book of philosophy as a treatise on writing, this work could even bear the subtitle Notes on Life. . . . A charming book that will have great appeal not only for aspiring writers but for all lovers of fiction and anyone interested in the complicated art of being human." - Library Journal (starred)
"A witty, generous guide." - Kirkus
"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 master's program in itself." - Paul Harding, author of This Other Eden
"Elizabeth McCracken, one of the greatest, wisest, funniest, and most humane writers you will ever encounter, has written one of 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 important, you'll want to run to your desk and write. A Long Game is an absolute gift." - Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide
"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. The book is intellectually rigorous with its philosophical and artistic deliberations on the art of fiction writing, and it is also full of tender humor, understanding, and respect for writers at any stage of their careers. It's a treasure box for any teacher of creative writing, a guidebook for any fiction writer, and a problem- solving and cheering companion that makes writing a less lonely business." - Yiyun Li, author of Things in Nature Merely Grow
"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, author of The Association of Small Bombs
"A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction is 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, author of The Days of Afrekete
"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, author of Mouth to Mouth
"The Story Prize-winning McCracken knows a lot about writing fiction, but think of her new title less as a craft book and more as a guidebook for first-time tourists and seasoned travelers alike. The author reminds us all that 'no process is wrong that leads to the first draft of a book." Or, as McCracken once said of bowling: "I like the fact that it's difficult, impossible to perfect, but people are really devoted to it.' This volume is all strikes, no spares." - Los Angeles Times
"Thoughtful, encouraging insights from her own experiences writing as well as her experiences reading and responding to years of student writing. . . . There are also very practical discussions of specific elements of fiction: structure, characterization, and various ways to think about plot." - The Clarion-Ledger
"What McCracken offers in A Long Game is something better than advice: She gives permission. This is a canny approach if you're peeking at the market: Every writer, from a high schooler with a notion to tell a story to a veteran novelist in the middle of a messy draft, needs a voice from somewhere telling them that they're pursuing something difficult but possible. So A Long Game is fit for students of Comp 101 classes and MFA programs, but also weekend hobbyists. But it works because her brand of inspiration isn't cheap uplift, just clear reports from the trenches about the sorts of things that can waylay a writer, both on the page and in life." - Alta
"Infused with the author's signature humility, humanity, and humor, A Long Game is a guide not only to the craft of writing fiction, but also to the art of living as a working writer." - Poets and Writers
"McCracken's deep empathy for others is evident on every page. As much a book of philosophy as a treatise on writing, this work could even bear the subtitle Notes on Life. . . . A charming book that will have great appeal not only for aspiring writers but for all lovers of fiction and anyone interested in the complicated art of being human." - Library Journal (starred)
"A witty, generous guide." - Kirkus
"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 master's program in itself." - Paul Harding, author of This Other Eden
"Elizabeth McCracken, one of the greatest, wisest, funniest, and most humane writers you will ever encounter, has written one of 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 important, you'll want to run to your desk and write. A Long Game is an absolute gift." - Cristina Henríquez, author of The Great Divide
"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. The book is intellectually rigorous with its philosophical and artistic deliberations on the art of fiction writing, and it is also full of tender humor, understanding, and respect for writers at any stage of their careers. It's a treasure box for any teacher of creative writing, a guidebook for any fiction writer, and a problem- solving and cheering companion that makes writing a less lonely business." - Yiyun Li, author of Things in Nature Merely Grow
"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, author of The Association of Small Bombs
"A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction is 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, author of The Days of Afrekete
"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, author of Mouth to Mouth