Professor Levin used the examples of Glück, who told students she sometimes didn't write for as long as two years, and Murakami, who set a goal for himself to write five short stories in five weeks, to illustrate how different the writing process can be.

Jean Valentine

"One of most amazing things I've seen my students get is that every writer has their own process," she said. "There is no right way or wrong way to do that and when you're young you don't understand that. You think there's one way to do it."

Professor Brogger said he, too, witnessed that understanding coming to his students during a visit by fellow playwright Kenneth Lonergan. "My students had an opportunity to listen to him talk about how he handled some of the challenges he faced. It took the whole celebrity angle off of what he does and it brought a person into the room who faces some of the same challenges they face. It put a human face on someone we discussed in class."

It is through those interactions with the writers that the students come to understand the writing life, he said. "Somehow people seem to assume once someone is in print that all of the challenges and all of the problems of writing fall away, and they're disabused of those fantasies very quickly in a really wonderful way."

"We've had students challenge the writers and ask them why they are so preoccupied with certain things." Professor Lopate said. "Murakami attracted a huge audience, and he talked about how he loved jazz and baseball and didn't think of himself as an intellectual. He ran the marathon."

Still, there is no taking away from the pure experience of hearing a writer read his or her own work. "You can get a much greater insight when you hear a writer reading his or her work aloud than just reading it on page," he said. "You discover the underlying rhythms and the level of irony the writer intended."

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