You have many blog posts and podcasts about the writing process and getting published. Could you touch on a few of the core things would-be authors should do?
I would say that the first and most important thing for an author is to learn to write consistently. It’s just so important. A lot of people say they want to be writers but don’t actually write, or they just write here and there. You can’t expect to be a master at something when you first try it. Even if you’re pretty good at it, you’re still not a master. So just write something. Write a book, edit it, start sending it off, and then immediately start writing something else. Give yourself time to learn to love the process and learn to become a professional, because if you really want this, then you need to act like one. The way you do that is you learn to make yourself write. You need to learn how to deal with writer’s block, too. It happens to all of us and we all deal with it in different ways, but you have to find what works for you and how to get yourself to produce.
You don’t need to be writing as fast as I did. I just absolutely love the process, and one of my big hang-ups early on was that I wouldn’t edit my books. That’s part of what took me so long. When I’d get done with a book, I’d say, “Yeah, I learned a lot from that; let me see what I can do now,” then I was always excited about the next new idea. I always thought, “Oh the next one’s going to be really good.” But because of that mentality, I never gave the books that I did finish the credit or polish work that they deserved. It wasn’t until I learned to start editing and revising that I got published. The first book I sold, Elantris , was actually the one that went through the largest number of revisions. Learn what works for you.
Another big thing I want to mention is that you shouldn’t try to write just toward the market—write toward yourself. Write something that you would love to read. It’s good to be aware of what’s happening in the market and what types of stories are out there and who else is writing books like that so that you can better explain what you’re writing. What you don’t want to do is say to yourself, “Teenage girl vampire romances are selling really well—I’m going to write one of those,” unless you happen to really love writing teenage girl vampire romances. If you write a good book, someone out there will want to read it, and someone will want to buy it and produce it for those people. Not all genres are as viable marketwise as others. But again, you can’t just say, “This sells well, so I’m going to write it,” unless you happen to really like what happens to sell well.
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