Goodreads asked Kevin Price:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Kevin Price It depends entirely on what you aspire to write, so the first thing is to be clear about what it is that turns you on.

Then you must write. And then write some more.

And then, above all else, learn to read your own writing.

And then, you must learn to read other people's writing, but not as a critic, as a writer. Read both writing that makes you feel good and, in equal proportions, writing that makes you want to throw up. This is the only way to learn where your place as a writer might be.

Be thick skinned. If your writing is any good, most people will not like it because they have not discovered writing of that nature before. Anything that's genuinely new to readers - especially critical readers - will frighten them until such time as a reader with some influence takes it under their wing and champions it. Critics who are used to writing they like are easily threatened. This includes commissioning editors who work in publishing houses. They want more of what they already have.

flag