Jennifer McMahon
My very best advice is to write the book or stories you’d most want to read.
My first three (unpublished!) attempts at novel writing were all about me finding my voice and bearings as a writer. I made the mistake of writing what I thought other people would expect me to write. When it came time to write book four, I asked myself the question I should have asked back at the beginning: “What’s the book I most want to read?” The answer that came back to me, loud and clear: A ghost story. It made complete sense. As a reader, I was drawn to the dark and creepy, to strange tales that made me want to sleep with the lights on. So I sat down to write my ghost story, which became my first published novel, Promise Not To Tell.
My first three (unpublished!) attempts at novel writing were all about me finding my voice and bearings as a writer. I made the mistake of writing what I thought other people would expect me to write. When it came time to write book four, I asked myself the question I should have asked back at the beginning: “What’s the book I most want to read?” The answer that came back to me, loud and clear: A ghost story. It made complete sense. As a reader, I was drawn to the dark and creepy, to strange tales that made me want to sleep with the lights on. So I sat down to write my ghost story, which became my first published novel, Promise Not To Tell.
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