Goodreads asked Michael Edelson:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Michael Edelson There are two very important skills when it comes to writing stories. One is the writing itself, which is actually quite common. I bet if you talk to ten of your friends, at least three of them can do it. But that doesn’t mean they can write a book, or even a short story.

I also think that the importance of the writing itself is a bit overstated. I've read plenty of great books by people who were very mediocre writers but knew how to tell a tale. If you’re a fan of literary fiction, you'll disagree, and that's fine. I see the appreciation of language as a different form of entertainment. If I notice the writing, then I am sucked out of the story, and I don’t like that. If you share this view, if you want to create the sort of fiction that pulls people in and keeps them there, then you need to understand that as a skill, writing is second fiddle to the ability to weave a cohesive story with all the necessary elements to make it compelling, including characters that readers can form a genuine bond with.

That ability is exceptionally rare. If you have it, but you're not a very good writer, then don't worry. You can still write a novel, just don't focus too much on the language. Write simple sentences with matter-of-fact descriptions. You can always go back and fix it later. Writing is a skill that improves with exercise, just like anything else, and so you will get better at it as you do it. If you read, then you know what sounds good in your head and what doesn't. Don't pay attention to what you're writing until you finish at least one chapter, then go back and read it, and change the things that don't sound good.

The most important thing to realize is that your first book is probably going to suck, and that’s okay. You can rewrite it later. The reason most people who finish a novel don’t ever manage to do anything with it is that they become fixated and fail to move on. You wrote your first book? Great. Put it away for at least a year and start your next one. It’s going to be better. Much, much better. And when you’ve written two or three more, go back to that first one. Laugh at how bad it is, then when you’re done laughing, fix it.

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