The first piece of writing advice I had was from a real, published author. We happened to be tutoring writing in a college writing center on an afternoon that was usually very slow. We had time to talk.
So I spilled a dream I had about writing a romance novel. I’d never written a bit of fiction, just lots of journaling and more like navel-gazing. But I’d read that the romance genre made the most amount of money for their authors. I wanted in on that.
He pondered, then asked me some questions. Like, have you ever read a romance novel? No, I had not. He suggested (he was so nice about all this) that I buy some and check them out.
I went to a used paperback bookstore and picked out three likely suspects. When I started reading the first one (Wild West themed), I wondered when there’d be any intelligent dialogue or even description. I kept reading. Then flipping through the book to see where the action was. Zero. The book was totally boring to the point of tears. Come on!
I checked out one other novel. Same thing.
Lesson Number One
I saw my fellow tutor the next week and reported to him. That’s when he gave me this advice: “Whatever you write, you have to feel passionate about it. Because it’s really hard work.” He got up at five a.m. every single morning to work on…
