Goodreads
Goodreads asked Emily Foster:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Emily Foster Write. Write every day. Write 500 words every day.

Also read. Reread your favorite books (especially in the genre you're writing) and try to figure out what it is about these books that you love so much.

And read about writing. I've found Donald Maas's "21st Century Fiction" invaluable, along with "Story Engineering" and lots of others. And there are two books about writing that taught me about writing, less because of their actual advice or information, and more because of how they are written: "Bird by Bird" by Ann Lamott and Strunk & White's evergreen "Elements of Style."

Writing is a craft, a skill, as much as an art. No one expects a sculpter to just intuitively *know* how to carve shapes into stone; we know that she will need to be taught, and she will need to practice.

So learn. Learn by explicit lessons; learn by observing the work of masters; and learn by practicing.

Anyway, that's how I do it.

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