Has your Work in Progress stalled? Need a little motivation? I conclude every interview by inviting the author to share one piece of advice they would give to aspiring writers. Below is a collection of six of these writing tips. Click on the author’s name to read the complete interview. Prepare to be inspired!
J.E. Barnard
Start from some setting or occupation or situation you already know well. It will give your early writing a confidence that allows it to flow more naturally for both you and the eventual reader, and give you a good base from which to expand outward into arenas that are less familiar to you.
Julie Howard
Never, never, never give up. If you want to be a writer, keep writing, and don’t let the naysayers get into your head. Believe in yourself and your stories. The more you write, the better you will become, so just keep at it.
Kathleen Marple Kalb
Do the work. Magic happens but you’d better be ready when it does. I say that after 200+ rejections across three different projects, and as someone who wrote a bunch of those query letters sitting in waiting rooms in hospitals I never expected to visit. You can’t give up – and you can’t give people a reason to weed you out.
Essie Lang
Don’t give up. Keep going. We used to say, in the days of mailing manuscripts along with an SASE, “it’s only a stamp”. In other words, if you believe in it, keep sending it out, but consider the advice from the professionals you meet along the way be it agents or editors and re-write when necessary, then send back out again.
Phillip Margolin
The one piece of advice I would give to aspiring writers is to think and not write when you get an idea. Work it through in your head until you know how your book will end. Don’t rush to write.
Jenn McKinlay
Write every single day. Try for one page. In less than a year, you’ll have finished a book. That’s the only way the magic happens, you have to finish the book.
I would love to find out about the writing advice you’ve received! Share the best #WritingTips you’ve gotten on Twitter and mention @VanessasPicks. I’ll retweet all I see. Good luck with your writing and, remember, never give up!
About Vanessa Westermann
Vanessa is a Canadian crime writer. She is the author of Cover Art and other books. At the heart of all of her stories are strong female protagonists.