One Piece of Advice From 7 Short Story Authors in 2024

Here I’ve collected one piece of advice from seven short story 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.

“I think a key component of my life as a writer, not just on the page but in life, is to remain open to change, to seek out the mystery. I think the nine-tailed fox has lived so many lives and adapted to so many places and languages and cultures because it is a shapeshifter, because it is open to the wilderness of the unknown, the allure of change and transformation. This mythical creature has been around for thousands and thousands of years, since the Classic of the Mountain and the Sea, so yes, it has something to teach us humans.” –Sally Wen Mao, author of Ninetails: Nine Tales (Penguin Books)

“Read and study different authors. Really study them. What they show and what they don’t. How they exercise restraint, how they hold back, so that the reader must feel what is there to feel. How they create atmosphere. Study them, and then try different things, until you find your own voice.” –Deepa Rajagopalan, author of Peacocks of Instagram (House of Anansi Press)

“Don’t go into debt for an MFA!” –Ruben Reyes, Jr., author of There is a Rio Grande in Heaven (Mariner Books)

“Keep writing! As I’ve always told my students, don’t write to become wealthy or famous, but because you have to write. Your own story—your own life experience—is the wealth you have as a writer. Use that wealth and don’t be afraid to share.” –Greg Sarris, author of The Forgetters: Stories (Heyday Books)

“Write what fascinates you. Write for yourself. Because it’s you who are going to have to spend all the time with your characters and your sentences, and if you’re looking outward—at the market or the assumed audience, you’re jumping ahead of yourself. This is your chance to make something only you can make, so be true to your own strange aesthetic.” –Lynn Schmeidler, author of Half-Lives (Autumn House Press)

“Stay playful! See what happens when you write in different forms, genres, or modes than you normally do. Whatever it takes to lower the stakes—try that!” –Marguerite Sheffer, author of The Man in the Banana Trees (University of Iowa Press)

“I think it’s all about revision. Most of my ideas in initial drafts are messy. Writing is a very lawless place. I think you have to be OK with uncertainty, OK with the idea that through showing up and simply revising, revising, revising, it will get better. Or at least George Saunders says it will, and I believe most of everything he says.” –Naomi Wood, author of This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (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.

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