Goodreads asked Glenda Burgess:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Glenda Burgess Learn or know your craft. You can do this by practice writing and learning from your own rewriting, or by taking workshops and classes from other writers. Once you're confident you can tell your story the best way possible, dig in with your idea, do the research, and start. Finally, let others read your work. Try not to be defensive. Take their criticism seriously, but with a grain of salt. Writers, all artists, reserve the right to be original. It helps me to categorize critique comments as either practical, e.g., This didn't make sense to me, or as personal, as in, Not my cup of tea. Always pay attention to practical feedback. Personal feedback can be useful to the degree it tells you if the readers you hope will read and like your work, in fact do.

flag