Goodreads asked Mike Crowl:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Mike Crowl Be willing to let other people critique your work. Build up two or three good, sensible people as your support group. They don't have to be writers (though it's helpful), but they do have to be able to see whether the structure of your book works, they have to ask you why you wrote something that doesn't make sense to them, they have to be able to say to you 'You can do better than this.' And they have to keep saying it.
People who merely praise your work, whatever it's like, are nice, but not helpful to you as a writer.
If your support group just consists of other writers wanting you to critique their work, find other people. You can't work on your own stuff as the same time as you're critiquing others. This is why I don't think writers' groups are much help.

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