Goodreads asked H.L. Wegley:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

H.L. Wegley To aspiring novelists, my advice is to learn the craft of fiction sufficiently to write a good story, with well-developed characters, before you write that first novel. Before writing my first novel, I had a lot of interesting experiences which contributed to an intriguing plot. I wrote most of the first draft in about a week, sitting on the banks of Lake Havasu. My masterpiece required several fiction-writing classes, 2 rounds of critiques, and 2 major rewrites spread over 2 years before it won a publishing contract. I had jumped the gun. Make an effort to learn the craft before you write 90 thousand words. That's a lot less effort than multiple rewrites of a poorly crafted story.

flag