Over the past year, I’ve invited dozens of writers, editors, and others in the literary/writing/publishing community to take part in a “Friday Five” feature. This involves a five-question email interview with the subjects (see links to all interviews). One question I ask of all interviewees is, “What advice do you have for other writers or aspiring writers?” I do this for selfish reasons, because I’m always looking for ideas and inspiration. But I hope the responses also help others who are wanting to improve their writing.
For this end-of-year piece, I’ve selected five bits of advice from the nineteen interviews of 2024. Here they are:
- “Be committed to your writing. Be completely committed to each individual story while you’re working on that story. And go to those things in your life and in your memories that scare you the most or make you the most uncomfortable. Listen for the voices of your characters. Be courageous and trust that the chaos will not overwhelm you.” – Doug Brown
- “No one has your unique set of experiences, skills, family background, world view, loves, losses, and weirdnesses. Honor and use what is uniquely yours and your authentic voice will shine through.” – Kathy Fish
- “Writing finds a way. Whether it’s a lack of time, finding confidence, overcoming burnout or writer’s block, writing finds a way. Carve out time where you can. Be proud of the writing you accomplish. Just keep at it.” – Nat Weaver
- “Have fun with the writing. Don’t write just to fit the style of a particular magazine — write the poems you want to be writing. You don’t need anybody’s permission to be a poet. You just need to love it, put in the time, read widely (that is important), and work on getting better.” – Agnes Vojta
- “That first draft is for you, the writer, telling yourself the story. The subsequent drafts are for the reader, so revise it with them in mind!” – Tommy Dean
Interested in more writing advice? Visit the Friday Five interviews page.
And if you are a writer who would like to be featured on this website in 2025, or would like to nominate an author, editor, publisher, please get in touch.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Andy writes! 
An inspiring Friday Five–thank you and happy new year to Andy writes!
My advice made the cut, how fun. All of this is solid advice too, not just mine.