Before we can even talk about writing careers, we need to do two things. First, look at how to gather the raw material for writing— that is, information in its many forms. Then second, look at the nature of writing itself and approach that subject not simply as communicators of our native tongues, but as people who use writing as their professional livelihood.

The reason we do this instead of just leaping into the much more exciting topic of making money from writing is that to do the latter you must be adept at the former. And that is a problem, because few of us are taught anything (other than “go to the library”) for the former.

As for the latter— that is, our K– 12 English education— most of what we are taught is misdirected, mis- oriented, wrongly prioritized, and just plain dreary. The truth is that most of the best writers we know were terrible English and grammar students, still can't parse a sentence, and could start a chain reaction with all the infinitives they split. So, in the course of a few pages, we are going to revisit and relearn your first 12 years of writing education.

Don't worry. It won't take long, and we'll try to make it fun.