Goodreads asked SGM Ashcroft:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

SGM Ashcroft Write. A lot. Read. A lot -- but read as a writer, not as a reader. Make notes when you come across brilliant writing. Work out why it's brilliant, and try to replicate it in your own work. I found this approach invaluable in learning how to master:
-- Dialogue
-- Shifts back and forth in time
-- Pacing
-- Characterisation
Fiction writing is hugely technical. Become a technician.

To this end I also found the online resources of Jericho Writers invaluable. I didn't even subscribe to any of their many paid-for options, but learned all I needed from their fantastically useful free blogposts. Their post on how to construct a plot became my template for plotting, and it works brilliantly.

And do all of this for your own pleasure. View it as a hobby, an escape, not as a career option.

If you stick at it for long enough -- around eight years in my case –– you'll find your 'voice', and that's when the magic starts to happen. Only then ought you start to think in terms of monetising your writing.

And that's a whole new ball game. If you get this far, and you're still serious about being a writer, you'll need to invest £450-£650 in hiring a professional fiction editor. And when that editor rips your work to shreds -- which they will -- you need to listen to them. You might even need to start from scratch. It's tough, and you can only do it if you're utterly driven. Unfortunately, there are no short cuts.

There are way too many self-published novels by writers who have failed to properly learn their craft.

For me, it's a bit like an O-Level art student sticking up their work with Sellotape in the National Gallery. Yes, it's up there, but who really cares?

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