Goodreads asked 'Nathan Burgoine:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

'Nathan Burgoine Listen to your editors. I know "aspiring" likely means you're not at the stage yet for an editor, or you've only just begun (or haven't yet begun) so let me alter that to: find an editor. Friends are great for positive feedback, support, encouragement, and testing the narrative flow of a story. Editors help you sharpen your craft, spot errors, and streamline something you've created into something better. I can count on one hand the number of times I've resisted an editor's suggestion - they're almost always right. And even those few times I've resisted, it's usually been because there was something I'd not made clear about the importance of a point, or a turn of phrase that was Canadian (and thereby needed a bit more explanation that I'd obviously neglected).

So: find an editor. Listen to the editor.

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