Today we hear from an editor and author in Advice for Novelists series. In this series I've asked authors, agents, editors and publicists their response to the question:"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"
Learn the craft. Learn how to respect it before you attempt to do anything subversive. Learn what moves your audience. Learn how to expose yourself and your work to the honest opinion of others, especially people who don’t like what you’ve written. Learn, learn, learn. “Your job,” write the authors of Art and Fear, “is to learn to work on your work.” And keep a lot of chocolate on hand. It enhances the retention of studying.
--Erin Healy, co-author with Ted Dekker of the novel Kiss. Founder and Editor at WordWright Editorial Services. Visit her online at her website.
4 comments:
Great advice. And from Erin Healy...holy moly. I'm stoked to read KISS. I'm a huge Ted Dekker fan as well.
Thanks for this post!
"Learn how to expose yourself and your work to the honest opinion of others" The Mt. Hermon Mentor program helped with that. Never so nervous about writing in my life!!! But their criticisms/helps made that first story stronger!
Oooh, I like the chocolate advice! And, of course, the advice to keep learning.
Off topic a bit: what a gorgeous girl, huh? Very pretty picture.
Just finished and reviewed Kiss. They wrote very well together.
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