Goodreads asked E.R. Torre:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

E.R. Torre First, recognize the great mythologies tied to being an author and accept them as being just that. Not to be crude, but the mythologies I'm talking about, usually perpetuated in the media, involve the idea that an author "shits out" his novels during a couple of hours of his/her free time and spends the rest of their day solving mysteries, romancing supermodels, and/or wining and dining.

If only this were true!

Writing is hard work. The process of creating a novel, to me, at a minimal takes many months -and sometimes a couple of years!- of very hard work before I'm satisfied it is ready to be released to the general public.

Secondly, just because you've written a novel doesn't mean the world is going to stop and everyone is going to read it while showering you with cash. First time successful authors are a rarity and you should be ready to continue working. If your first novel doesn't light the world on fire, maybe your second, third, or tenth might. In the meantime, each new novel surely brings you new fans.

Third: Recognize that your time is precious and limited and, given the amount of it required to write a book, try to the best of your ability to weed out the "bad", "so-so", or "average" ideas while focusing on the ones that are the most promising. In this respect, you have to be your own harshest critic and you need to constantly push yourself to create your best work each and every time.

Finally, and perhaps paradoxically, take a break now and again. Sometimes I'm guilty of spendomg waaaaay too much time focused on a work to the exclusion of everyone and everything around me. Letting your mind "rest" might just be the best remedy to figuring out that particularly knotty problem in your latest book's second act.

flag