This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Jill Paton Walsh has won many awards for her writing. In 1994 her novel Knowledge of Angels was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and in 1996 she received the CBE for services to literature and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her latest book, The Late Scholar, is out now. Today, we're excited to be able to give you her top five writing tips.
1. Don't write a novel unless you must.
2. Don't write for money; don't write for glory, only for the satisfaction of the thing itself.
3. Don't read literary criticism.
4. Don't read how-to-write books, with one exception, Ursula Leguin's Steering the Craft. That one might help you.
5. Don't seek "self-expression", seek to express something that other people might want to read.
Postscript. A writer is one who writes. Not necessarily one who is published. If you are a writer, just get on with it!