Goodreads asked Tom Chatfield:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Tom Chatfield What's the only thing every successful writer has in common? They manage to get the work done: they find a way to live and to write.

This is the key, I think. One way or another, if you're serious about writing, you need to find a way to live that also allows you to write - and this means being honest about what (and who!) inspires you, engages you, permits you to put down word after word and keep trying.

Very few writers can write full-time or call themselves "writers" initially, perhaps for years. So - it doesn't matter how you do it, it simply matters that you find a way to do it. Write, keep writing, be serious about your writing, work out what a life looks like that has writing in it - and, perhaps, some sense of direction for improvement, aspiration and audience.

But these last bits are optional. What works for you won't be what works for me, or what worked for Hemingway. Write. Write some more. Fit some reading in there too. Keep going. Good luck!

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