Goodreads asked Joy Monette:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Joy Monette Most of us are paralyzed by the fears that we don't have talent, that other people won't enjoy a book we've written, that we'll never get it perfect. 1) Skill comes with practice, so be thick-skinned. If people don't buy your first book, find out why, and write a second. And a third. 2) Wake up to the fact that some people won't ever like your book. Just read all the terrible reviews received by JK Rowling and James Patterson. 3) If you try to get your writing perfect, you'll never publish it. There comes a time when you are rewriting what already worked well. I have found typos and funny punctuation in books by Lee Child, John Grisham, Marian Keyes, and so on and so on. Perfect is not something we can achieve while on this earth, so don't insist on making yours the only perfect book in the known universe.

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