“The point is to get a pro's eyes on your work. Whether that's a career writer you admire, an agent, or an editor working with a legit publisher, their feedback can often give you the barometer for where you are and what you need to do to level up.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“Plenty of people with talent doubt themselves. Plenty of writers I know are deathly afraid they stink. Confidence is great and all, but you don't have to have it to be a good writer. You just have to keep going and committing yourself to leveling up.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“Whatever gets the job done and doesn't make you hate yourself or self-destruct is the right way to do it. Whenever I give advice here, I'm speaking to the writer I was in 2009.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“If you are paid to write you should not use the word misconduct when you mean rape that's just sloppy writing.”— Saladin Ahmed, twitter.com
“if you are a young writer, or an old writer, or a “I’m not sure if I’m a writer” writer: keep writing. keep reading. keep exploring. keep going to museums and playing and painting and singing and re-imagining the world. please.”— Joel L. Daniels, twitter.com
“I opened envelopes and sorted things and logged things. After a while I got to read submissions. And it was some of the best writing education I've ever had. If you want to grow as a writer, volunteer at a lit mag or small press!”— Roxane Gay, twitter.com
“Protip: If you write a bunch of words you hate, it doesn't make you a bad writer. Sometimes you have to write a lot of bad to figure out what's good.”— Sam Sykes, twitter.com
“WRITING PROTIP: Finding it hard to maintain concentration? Just stop thinking about all the ways it could fail and how the world might be completely destroyed before you finish!”— Sam Sykes, twitter.com
“A good exercise is to take everything out of the scene you’re writing, leaving only the dialogue, and see if you can still tell who’s talking.”— Sam Sykes, twitter.com
“If you view the writing process as a creative wellspring from which ideas simply come out fully-formed and beautiful, you'll be disappointed. If you view it as a craft you work on and can improve, you'll know a bad day of writing is something you can fix.”— Sam Sykes, twitter.com
“People have asked about my writing process for Lore, so here it is: (1) Sit down and write the damn thing without complaining or worrying about tools. (2) That’s it, just show up every day and make words. (3) Seriously, nothing else matters. (4) Go write.”— Aaron Mahnke, twitter.com
“"Almost publishable" is, unfortunately, a great pat on the head into which you can't read deeper meaning. It could mean the book, or it could mean you. But it's a good sign! I'd start writing the next book. And if you're still querying, keep querying.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“Talent, potential-- none of that matters. Literally the only thing that will get you published is writing the best book that you can and going through the right steps to get it published. Nobody pays for potential. They can't publish potential. They need an actual book.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“Every book can't be a bestseller, obviously, and they know that. Publishers buy plenty of books that are well written to fill out their lists. That's why we have midlisters and quiet books. That's why I have a career.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“You have to write it for you. Then put in the work to make it the best book you can write. And then think about how to get it on bookshelves. Always write the book for you, first.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“If you're passionate about telling a story, write the book. Time spent writing isn't time wasted. You're making art. That's worth something.”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“Another painful writing truth = You can follow every bit of advice, do everything you're supposed to do, and still not succeed the 1st time. Writing = art. It's not about ticking all the boxes. Your story must, above all, compel. If it doesn't, you've got to figure out why. There's this thing we cal…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“So if you want to know if your edits are improving your book, consider all these points. It doesn't matter how many times you check for typos if you don't have an active plot or your main character doesn't have an arc. The book should feel TIGHTER with each edit. Here's some tough love: It's very ra…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“So when it comes to how you know if your book is any good, I'd say that if you can hire an experienced pro to tell you, you'll *actually* know. If you're going it alone, querying will tell you. I didn't know if I was technically ready to query, but I was doing it anyway. I suggest sending out 5 quer…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com
“So I'm going to take on two related editing questions: How do you know if your edits are improving your book, and how do you know when you're ready to query? The bad news: There is no surefire way to know. But I can give you some tips! So let's say you have a 1st draft. It's garbage, because all 1st…”— Delilah S. Dawson, twitter.com