Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Colleen Coble (Advice for Novelists, Part 22)

Today novelist Colleen Coble stops by and gives her response to the question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

If I had only one thing to say to aspiring writers, I'd tell them not to make my mistake of writing one book then sending it out for YEARS before starting another. Finish a book, edit it to the best of your ability, send it out, then MOVE TO A NEW STORY. If I'd done that, it wouldn't have taken me seven years to be published. I had all my eggs in that one basket and was desperate to have that particular book published. When the rejections came back, I'd rework it and send it out again. And again. And again. You get the picture. LOL

You learn more about writing by writing. Reading books and attending conferences (while all good and necessary to my mind) aren't substitutes for actually DOING it.

--Colleen Coble, author of Anathema, Abomination, The Rock Harbor series, and more. Visit her online at her website here and the Girls Write Out Blog.


1 comment:

michael snyder said...

"You learn more about writing by writing."

I totally agree. Good stuff.

Mike