Learning to Write The literary journey of Mary McPhee It's taken all these years! With crayons, block letters, a pencil on notebook paper, on a Smith-Corona portable, finally on a computer. At age six, made newspapers for my Dad to read when he came home because he was a traveling man. It was the first money I earned from my writing—2 to 5 cents an issue. I graduated from college with a degree in journalism, and worked briefly on a small-town newspaper. Then I moved to the big city of Denver, married and had five children so writing disappeared from my life for a long time. In my late thirties, I started a journal. The urge hit me at 5 a.m., a wonderful time of quiet and soft light from a single lamp at an old, scarred desk. I used a yellow No. 2 pencil on lined notebook paper. Because I was feeling some strong emotions at the time, I tried to put down the exact truth. This could be dangerous or at le