I spent the weekend with 14 authors - here's what I learned

6 tips for aspiring writers

Last month, in my role as digital marketer, I spent a weekend filming several authors to amass content for the year ahead. Authors had a big list of questions they could choose from to answer, and many chose, ‘What’s your writing advice to aspiring authors?’

I loved hearing what everyone’s advice was, and wrote them down to share with you.

1. Two authors said just write, which is very solid advice and something I follow myself. The idea is that your book will never get written if you don’t actually sit down to write it. You’ll never get better at writing if you don’t practice. Creating a Pinterest board and Spotify playlist only count to a certain extent.

2. But then a third author brought up an extremely good point and brings us to the next piece of advice: Perseverance will only get you so far, you need to study and hone your craft. I’d never considered this before. I just said above that you’ll never get better at writing if you don’t practice, but how far will you get if you keep making the same mistakes? How will you learn if you don’t attend workshops and courses and spend time studying the craft?

3. Remember to incorporate the small, everyday moments.

4. Don’t pigeon hole yourself, try different mediums and forms of writing - you never know what will happen!

5. Treat writing like a job - show up at the same time, find your routine, let your brain wander, it’s about consistency.

6. Don’t be afraid to fail, because of course you’re going to fail. But you’ll learn from those failures and then you’ll be better than before.

Thank you, Holden Sheppard, David Whish-Wilson, Deb Fitzpatrick, Mark Greenwood, Renae Hayward, and Jay Martin for sharing your advice with us.

If you haven’t already, consider joining my subscriber-only chat, and come and tell me if any of this advice is helpful or what the best writing advice you’ve ever received is!