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10.
AOTW: What advice do you give to aspiring writers?
Marita Conlon-McKenna: The best advice any writer can give is to write and write and write, poems letters, reviews, short story, reviews of films, theatre etc., anything, as long as words tumble on the page and you are having fun!
Malachy McCourt: Never think of yourself as an aspiring writer. I AM A WRITER is a good mantra and one day you will be a published writer.
Mary E. Lyons: Be honest with yourself. Do you think you have talent? Are you an avid reader? If your house isn't filled with books that have brought you great satisfaction, writing for publication is not for you. Be aware that it takes time to learn the craft. Please don't call a writer for advice. I've received a number of phone calls at night from people in my town who have no professional knowledge or experience with children or children's literature. Yet they assume I can tell them in a few sentences how to "get published" and "find an agent." This is akin to calling an architect and saying, I've got a great idea for a house, and I want you to tell me in ten minutes over the phone how to build it, and then I want you to sell it for me.
Jamie O'Neill: Be true and persevere. (My boyfriend, by the way, gives this advice: Find a good partner who'll tend to your needs, wash your clothes for you, make your meals; who's never in your way, but always there; who softly treads on your dreams.)
Emma Donoghue: Get an agent; you can't do without one.
Morgan Llywelyn: Read. At first, read everything. Then narrow your frame of reference to really good writers. Learn to be discriminating. If you are discriminating in your choice of reading material you will become increasingly more critical of your own work, and thus a better writer.
Regina McBride: Know your obsessions. Gather them to you and explore them as deeply as you can. Don't hold back. Take huge risks while writing out of a sense of your own truth. Make writing a priority in your life and be willing to make tremendous sacrifices in order to do it. Be cutthroat about your time and isolation.
Randy Lee Eickhoff: You must read. You can make yourself into a competent writer --- the mechanics are easy to learn --- but if you do not have a rich literary heritage you will fall by the wayside. Read, read, read. And do not limit yourself to one thing: man is not one thing, he is all things and as such, the writer must be a bit of a jack-of-all trades in order to create a work that is not mundane and trash.
Andrew M. Greeley: Write, write, write.
Niall Williams: Keep writing. After that, keep writing. When you've stopped, start, keep writing, the white space needs constant attention.
Máire B. de Paor: Ask yourself what do you feel passionately about. Then carve out for yourself time and space for yourself and submit to the discipline of writing from the heart every day. Clarify your ideas and the words will take care of themselves. Learn from and be grateful for constructive criticism. Stand your ground calmly when some idiot of a critic tries to cut the socks from under you. Courage!
Martin Roper: A lot. I've been teaching writing nearly twenty years. It's one of my joys in life. In brief: Courage, my friend, courage.
Maureen Dezell: Write. Read. Experience. Write, read, experience some more. Writing a book was among the hardest things I've ever done. It was also a pleasure and a privilege. I've yet to meet a published writer who hasn't said essentially the same thing.
Liam Clancy: Keep at it and hope for the best.
Eoin Colfer: Read all the time. Be sure your novel is the best that you can make it. Get a good agent.
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