My one writerly habit was describing everything I did, no matter how absorbing or how trivial, as if I were standing outside myself and watching. That is, I would get up in the morning and look out the window, all the time thinking, “She slid from the rumpled bed, yawned, and looked out at the pale . . . no, thin winter light. It was going to be another one of those days. . . .” That kind of thing; very corny.

Every writer’s origin story is different. In How I Became a Writer, Gloria Steinem charts her unlikely journey from restless teen in Toledo, Ohio, to professional magazine writer in Manhattan—with sage advice and “random directives” for getting started.

How I Became a Writer was originally published in Glamour, October 1965.

Cover design by Adil Dara.