Goodreads asked Sarah Schmidt:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Sarah Schmidt I'm the worst when offering advice but here's some that might be helpful:
* Decide to be a writer and do that.
* Write. Write when you don't feel like it, write when you do feel like it.
* Writing is a part of you, will take from you, has the ability to nourish you so only write the book or story you need and want to write.
* Don't be afraid of your own voice.
* Don't worry about how long something is going to take you to write. Take your time, redraft, reconfigure. Every draft you do will make you a better writer and the more hours you put in each day, each week, the better you will be. There's no such thing as 'wasted' time when you're creating something.
* Read widely, read critically. Learn from other writers, figure out what you do and don't like.
* Listen to criticism but be wary of spite dressed as critique
* Go for a walk
* Pay attention to your dreams
* Some days will be really bad. But hey, at least you turned up to the page. Well done. You're writing.

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