A SUCCESSFUL WRITER: ISAAC ASIMOV My case study is going to be about a very successful writer: Isaac Asimov (1920-1992).

He worked mainly with Science-Fiction novels and short stories, and also scientific dissemination, besides other less known works, like mistery stories, historical dissemination, a book about the Bible, etc. Therefore, he wrote popular literature and could not be considered as an expert writer in the same sense that a Nobel Prize winner, for instance. However, he became really expert in his genre of writing and was really successful and famous. Asimov, in his memories (which were written during his last months of life) and also in prologues to some of his fiction works, described in a quite detailed way how he started his career. When we read these descriptions, the first aspect which can atract our attention is that being a child, he was a really keen reader by means of public libraries (his parents were modest shopkeepers, who could not afford to buy him books, but they got him used to go to library very early). So, we can think that he started very early a process similar to Coyle's deep practice, in an unconscious way. Reading as many books as possible and analyzing them, he started to acquire the kind of skills that he would use in the future as a professional writer. However, for a long time writing was only a second and little important career for Asimov, only a hobby which could provide him with something of extra money. But his main field of interest was Biochemistry: he studied this science at University and became a University assistant professor, but in the end, gave up this job to focus in writing. Therefore, we could say that, having became really successful as writer, he was not in the same degree at all as a biochemist. And perhaps the difference could be explaines as a combination of a much higher talent (innate talent) for writing, and the kind of effort that we can relate to the concept of 'deep practice'. Being a high-school student, Asimov started to write some Science-Fiction short stories and offered them to several specialized journals which used to publish this kind of fiction. The process was not easy for him: he had to re-write once and again some stories, and for some of them he was never able to publish them until he was famous and published them in a book. During this process, he acquired little by little more and more expertise, with the help of some of his publishers. So the process by means of which Asimov became a successful writer is something very similar to Coyle's deep practice, but probably other writers made similar and even high efforts, without any outcome; only a talented apprentice like Asimov was able to take advantage of all the opportunities and eventually succeed.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION
ASIMOV, I. "I, Asimov: a memoir". New York: Doubleday, 1994 Asimov's autobigraphy, which was written during his last months of life. He describes quite extensively his early ages and his first attempts to write and publish. At the same time, we can also see his partial success in his second career, as a biochemist and university professor.

ASIMOV, I. "The early Asimov; or, Eleven years of trying". Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1972. Collection of science-fiction short stories by Asimov. It is a selection of some of his earliest stories, some of which he was never able to publish at that moment. It is a very useful work to understand the beginning of Asimov's career, because besides the stories, we can find a short narrative about how each story was planned, written and

published (or at least, how Asimov tried to publish it, and why that was not possible in some cases).

"Isaac Asimov". Available in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov [viewed on 5th May 2013] The entry from Wikipedia about Asimov, with information about his biography, works, writing style and views.