Goodreads asked Joshua Stephen Allen:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Joshua Stephen Allen I think there are 3 major obstacles aspiring writers face; not understanding structure, not understanding narrative and weak antagonist/s.

Again, back to the writer's block thing, simply knowing where a story is going is so very important. Having ideas organized so they can be changed and adjusted through the writing process is extremely helpful. Use an outline.

Narratives are quite simple; a beginning, middle and end, a protagonist/s that goes through some fundamental character change in the course of the narrative and obstacles the protagonist/s must overcome to achieve or not achieve their dramatic need. This goes back to the structure.

And lastly, have a very strong antagonist/s. Having a strong antagonist/s will immediately present some wonderful 'obstacle' choices for a writer. Many times aspiring writers focus on the protagonist/s as a means to support a narrative and the results are a weak antagonist/s and lack of obstacles. I technique I use is role reversal; I switch my protagonist/s and antagonist/s and see how the narrative would play out if my antagonist/s were to achieve his/her/their dramatic need in the narrative.

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