Goodreads asked Charlie David:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Charlie David The best advice on writing I ever received was by reading Stephen King's 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft'. As a new writer, to learn that such a prolific master of a genre and with such a massive following had been rejected dozens and dozens of times by publishers was heartening.

King would pile up the rejection letters on a nail in his office and just keep going. The persistence obviously has paid off.

In terms of boiled down, succinct advice - in the book Stephen King advises that if you want to be a writer then you need to write. One can't wait for the muse to inspire. You need to sit down and write every day, even when you know it's not very good. The muse needs to know you're serious and where to find you. King writes 10 pages a day. That's his work day. He quits once he's done 10 pages. It's no surprise then that he is as prolific as he is. One month can crank out the pages for an average sized novel.

We know that if we want our bodies to be fit, we need to work-out or go to the gym. If we want to be a writer, we need to practice our craft - whether we're being paid to do it or not.

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