One Piece of Advice From 7 Horror Authors in 2024
Here I’ve collected one piece of advice from seven horror authors who were featured in our author spotlight series in 2024. Be sure to click the author names if you’d like to read their full author spotlights from earlier this year.
“That moment where you feel your book is the worst thing a human being has ever written? It’s a completely normal part of the process. Keep going.” –C. J. Cooke, author of A Haunting in the Attic (Berkley)
“(Editors, don’t read this:) It’s totally fine—in fact it’s really fun—to write a book that is absolutely nothing like your previous book!” –Dan Kois, author of Hampton Heights: One Harrowing Night in the Most Haunted Neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Harper Perennial)
“A lot can be said for being stubborn! This is a tough, but beautiful business. Perfect your craft and don’t give up. Love it more than anything. Believe—foolishly, hopefully, endlessly, passionately. You only lose if you stop trying. I was once asked, after many years and many a rejection, why I didn’t just stop trying. My reply was fervent and fevered: ‘I will never quit. If I have to write 99 novels and do it until I’m 100 years old—I will do that. I will never quit.’ Keep your eyes on your own page and ink your pen. One foot in front of the other. One word before the next. Stories are built one character at a time. You’ve got this.” –Dawn Kurtagich, author of The Madness (Graydon House Books)
“I’m not one for practical writing advice because every writer is different, and what works for me probably won’t work for the next person. My one constant piece of advice is this: Write the next thing. Too many aspiring writers finish one novel then beat it to death, revising and revising, trying to sell it, then revising it again, flogging the proverbial dead horse. Rewriting is vitally important, of course, but it’s also important to keep moving forward. Write the next thing, because it’ll be better than the last, and the one before that, and the one before that, and…” –Stuart Neville, author of Blood Like Mine (Soho Press/Hell’s Hundred)
“Perseverance is key. There is nothing unique about that insight but, in any creative endeavor, it’s 100 percent true. Imagination is a muscle that needs strengthening, and the more regularly I sit down and write, the easier things become.” –Vincent Ralph, author of One House Left (Wednesday Books)
“If writing is what you love, don’t ever give up. Rejections are part of a writer’s life, but instead of viewing them as a reflection of you, remember that they’re a reflection of the subjectivity of the industry. So, keep going, keep improving, keep reading, and most of all, keep writing!” –Del Sandeen, author of This Cursed House (Berkley)
“I would say that if your traumatic events or otherwise very real microaggressions people face, always take a step back to properly assess whether or not also being affected by writing about it. Some things that I had written in We Came to Welcome You were fictionalized accounts of my own life and had to be talked over with a therapist before I felt it was truly necessary to the story. If you have someone you trust that you can talk over your emotions with, I would say to make time to process those emotions with them.” –Vincent Tirado, author of We Came to Welcome You (William Morrow)
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While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.