Goodreads asked Bill Pieper:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Bill Pieper Start writing. Prticipate in critique groups, Take a few workshops, but be wary of imbibing advice from every direction, because much of it will conflict with what you heard the prior week or month. Pick what's relevant to you and kind of work you seek to do. The book "Tools of the Writer's Craft" by Sands Hall is a great place to begin. Also, try writing stories first, and work at having them published. The web resource Duotrope can be a huge help in finding potential outlets. But if you fail in being published, maybe writing isn't for you, because if you can't get stories published, you're probably not doing journeyman-level work, and absent that, your chances of finding an agent or selling a novel are slim.

flag