Goodreads asked Michael Alan Nelson:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Michael Alan Nelson It really all depends on the person wanting advice. Each writer has their own goals and aspirations. Some writers just want to see a book with their name on its spine, sitting on their bookshelf. Others want to be bestsellers with volumes and volumes of books in print. Many fall somewhere in between, wanting to make a living by doing what they're passionate about but not necessarily needing the mansions and the cars and the exotic vacations. So I usually answer this question with a question of my own, but it requires the aspiring writer to be completely honest with herself. I ask, "If you knew, for a fact, that you would never make a dime from writing for the rest of your life, would you still write?" If the answer is no, you should probably find something else to spend your time on. Writing is the ugly thing you do when you sit down in front of a blank screen and bruise it with your words. It's hard, numbing, gloriously satisfying work. But it's work. The great screenwriter John Rogers put it perfectly when he said that being a professional writer is like always having homework due. So if you're in it for anything other than the love of storytelling, you're going to have a long and painful journey ahead of you. I think most successful writers would agree that they write because they HAVE to write. They love it. Writing is in their DNA. And I mean the act of writing. Doing research, tweeting about writing your novel, even searching for agents or which publishing house to query is all well and good, but that isn't writing. Those are the things we do when we want to tell ourselves we're writing without actually having to do the work of writing. However, if you write because you can't imagine NOT writing, then stick with it. It will take time, but that success will come. And your life will be richer for it.

flag