Read widely, deeply—intensely—read many books by the same writer, ideally in the order in which they were written— this will be uplifting to you as well as instructive. You see how other writers made their way through the underbrush when they were your age and had no idea that they would ever become “writers”—let alone “famous.” The more challenging the classic, like Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” the more rewarding, as Zanche has discovered. – Joyce Carol Oates