This is week 51. After tomorrow, there will be only one more week in this month, in this year. Can you believe it? I have enjoyed participating in the blog hop challenge. Reading the various posts and getting to know the authors participating has been a joy.
Today’s topic ‘Advice to a New Author.’ Tough topic. I still consider myself a new author. I’m still working on stories that I hope to publish for the first time next year. The advice I’d give another new author is this:
(Charlie Brown/Peanuts-Charles Schultz)
Read. Read books in your preferred genre. Read books you wouldn’t normally read. I visited a great-aunt the summer of 2016. As I prepared to leave, she gifted me with a non-fiction book on a subject I wouldn’t have ever considered buying. I read part of the book on my flight home and finished it within a week of my return. It was a great book and it sparked a lot of ideas that I copied into my story idea book.
Write. There is the school of thought that you should write every day. I tried. I would stare at my monitor for hours waiting for words to pop into my head. None came through before I would give up and played my favorite game, 3D Mahjong. I found I did better when I wrote in bites of about 250 words three or four times a day. Not every day. Lesson learned. Do what works best for you when it comes to the time you designate to write.
Join a writing group in person or online. Writing is solitary but if you locate a person or persons you have someone you can hang with or chat online with as you travel on your writing journey that you can bounce ideas off of or brainstorm with.
Please check out the other authors here.
Alicia Coleman 
This is invaluable advice for authors, Alicia. Thanks for sharing.
Great advice, Alicia!
Thank you for stopping by!
Reading and writing . . . yep, those of the foundation blocks of a writing career.
I loved your anecdote on your blog.! Thanks for stopping by.
Great post! I totally forgot about joining a writer’s group….
I read in my genre and keep a story idea book, too. You never know when/where inspiration will come from. I’ve often seen something in another book that worked it’s way into one of my scenes.
Good advice, and thanks for sharing!
Thank you for stopping by!
Read, write, hang out with others. Great advice for life as well as writing.
Great advice!
This year my goal was to try and read books out of my genre. I didn’t get as many done as I wanted. But I still attempted and will do more. The online group thing is important. I joined one and it’s made a world of difference.