Any final advice to prospective writers?
Hear what the masters have to say. Read Michener’s The Novel. Read every book by authors in the genre that you want break into. Get in touch with agents. If necessary, get your work in front of a consultant editor who will critique the work (for a fee). Read what Stephen Coonts has to say in his website about writing. Ditto Dale Brown. Read the author interviews in Amazon.com to see what they say about writing. Take writing classes. Go to an author’s reading and ask questions. But most of all, write. Reread your work the same day, then the next day, a week later, and a month later. If the work still looks good a month after you wrote it, it’s probably okay. If it stinks, keep working. If it brings tears to your eyes two months after the ink’s dry, it’s ready to be read by others. Then work on the thickness of your skin. Get ready for endless “ugly baby” comments. It won’t sell. It is disjointed. It has wooden dialogue. The characters are illogical. The scenes jump all over time. The th
