Any advice for aspiring writers?
Read. Read a lot. Read everything you can get your hands on. If there’s a local writer’s group, join it. If you’re reading this online, you have access to a huge resource of bulletin boards and various groups: use it. There are also national writer’s organizations that do offer membership to aspiring writers; check those out. And write. Write a lot. Keep a journal if that helps you; it does some writers. Watch movies and TV, looking at character and plot. Drive your friends crazy by figuring out whodunnit during a murder mystery. Have a favorite book? Break it down by plot and character until you understand how it was put together. Do the same thing for movies. Teach yourself to think like a writer, to mentally ask yourself “what if …” and begin spinning a story whenever you encounter an interesting situation or person. And after you’ve written something you think might sell to a publisher, go out and get yourself a current edition of The Writer’s Market, which contains all the info
