Goodreads asked Russell Wilks:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Russell Wilks Live well within your means and continuously expand your means. Put away as much cash into savings and investments as early as you possibly can. Run sideline businesses and things that produces extra streams of income and ribbons of revenue.

For years I was a starving artist-writer. It wasn't pretty. It was grim. Then I started to really think about how I could support my hideous junkie writing habit and still live some kind of semblance of a relatively normal life. Including occasionally enjoying a good meal with fine friends etc.

If you're stubborn like me then you'll feel like throwing yourself against the wall of refusal again and again. Stop. Think. Ask yourself how you can afford to be a writer?

Some solutions are the previously mentioned invested wealth. Other jobs that earn decent money per hour - So you can at least spend a goodly amount of your week writing. And learning to get paid for your writing through copywriting (marketing comms etc).

Most writers spend along time developing their skills and their voice. Very rarely do they pop out of their mams fully formed. So bear in mind that writing is a long-term, ongoing practice. So prepare for the long-haul before you go to far down the rabbithole.

Oh, and always read your work out loud to suss out its rhythm and feel. This makes editing much easier!

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