I am dismayed to realize that much of the advice I used to parcel out to aspiring writers has passed its sell-by date. In the past, I had a fairly standard set of suggestions for anyone who wanted to write for a living. Move to a medium-sized city, I'd say. Get a job writing for the paper, any paper—don't forget the alternative newsweeklies, the local rags, even the community newsletters. Don't go to graduate school—it's expensive, and no one cares about writing degrees. And, most important, ...