Goodreads asked Lisa Amowitz:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Lisa Amowitz Read, read, read--especially books on writing like Stephen King's ON Writing and Ann Lamott's Bird by Bird. Write, write, write, write. Find a group of other writers whom you trust and admire to give you constructive feedback. Take criticism and learn from it. Writing is a collaborative effort and professional writers must be flexible enough to work with editors and revise, revise, revise. Live by these words from Stephen King that I am paraphrasing from memory: All first drafts are crappy (he said a more choice word, but I am trying to be PG rated) and Sometimes you've got to kill your darlings. I use that quote for my design students, too. In other words, you must sacrifice some of your precious ideas for the good of the whole.

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