Goodreads asked Kenneth L. Decroo:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Kenneth L. Decroo Find other serious writers and network with them. I was very lucky in being invited to a writers’ group of published authors. I had attended a writers’ workshop at the University led by an award-winning, bestselling author. Later, she invited me to here private group. I was the only unpublished writer in the group. This was not a mutual admiration society but a group of brutally honest, competent writers who pulled no punches. I grew as a writer from that experience. I learned about my craft AND the business. This is how you find other writers who are writing, not talking about writing, but writing.

Read. Read across many genres. Pay attention to style and craft as you read especially what makes dialogue ring true. Read for the writer’s voice, the strengths and weakness of narration, character development, plot, etc. In my opinion, good writers are hungry readers. That said, one caution is to be careful about reading something too close to what you’re writing at the time as it can hijack your voice.

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