•January 24, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

A reader asked, “How did you become a writer?” I don’t think of myself as a “writer,” yet I do lots of it: this column; feature and news stories for my hometown county-seat weekly I re-started 15 years ago; several books.

If you will indulge me, I will use my experience to offer varied lessons learned about writing.

My beginnings were inauspicious.

As a freshman at the University of Illinois in 1959, I was put in a lower-level writing course (the only one I have ever taken).

One of our first assignments was to write an essay about something of importance to us. I wrote about my little town.

The instructor had us read each other’s papers; my effort generated some criticism among class members and the instructor. One student, however, noted that she felt herself a part of my home town after reading it.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.