Here's another edition of my Advice for Novelists series in which editors, authors, agents and publicists answer the question:"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"
Get training. I thought I was a good writer, but I didn't know what I didn't know. It was only after I had a creative writing professor look over my manuscript that I began to learn the craft of writing. You don't get a hundred chances to get published. When your chance arrives, you want to make sure that you are submitting your best product. So, my advice would be to get some instruction from a pro before you submit anything. You'll probably be surprised at what you didn't know.
--James David Jordan, author of Forsaken and the forthcoming Double Cross. Visit his website to learn more.
3 comments:
Hi C.J.~ I love these posts; I always am interested in advice for aspiring writers. Congratulations on your own recent GREAT news! How exciting!
I'm giving you a blog award today at WordVessel (http://wordvessel.blogspot.com.)
Blessings!
Cathy
Spot on advice. I knew I had gaps in my writing knowledge, gaps that weren't getting filled by self-study (reading books on writing, magazines etc). It wasn't until I went back to school and started taking writing classes that those gaps started to fill. For me, school is what I needed. :-)
Interesting, and very true--yet I'm not sure I've heard many say this. I think too many of us expect that we can learn by reading books on writing and just reading/writing. I'll agree that the writing courses I've taken were VERY valuable, and I'd take more in a jiffy.
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