Goodreads asked Kate Lattey:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Kate Lattey Everyone answers this question the same way, generally.
And it's true. If you want to be a writer, you have to write. There's no way around that. But let's assume that you're already doing that, and give you a few other ideas:

Read. A lot.
Read books in the genre you want to write.
Critique what you read. What do you love about this genre? What do you dislike? What are the tropes and stereotypes? How can you avoid or subvert them?

Watch TV.
We are living in a golden age of television drama, and some of the best storytelling of the modern age is being done onscreen. Movies are short stories; TV dramas are novels. The way that characters evolve, the way storylines ebb and flow, pacing and dialogue and character interaction are all crucially important.
Watch good TV, and recognise why it is good.
Watch (limited amounts of) bad TV, and recognise why it is bad.
Rewrite episodes or scenes from shows. Write fanfiction. Make up your own TV show. I have two potential TV pilots scratching around on my laptop and in my brain - one is a sweeping epic that would cost millions of dollars to make. The other is a small family drama that could quite conceivably be made, and I am planning to actually write that one and see if I can't get TVNZ interested. I did, after all, already pitch them an idea for an episode of a local TV series that was the highest ranking show in the country that month and has led to an 8-part spinoff... Not that I can take much credit as all I did was point them towards fascinating subject material. For my part, I wrote a book about it (see: "Dare to Dream").

Be unafraid of criticism. Learn to give it out and learn to take it on board. Be your own worst critic. Find someone who will be brutally honest with you about your stories and listen to their suggestions. You don't have to make all the changes they suggest, but you should take them on board.

But mostly, just write. Write things that inspire you. Write a short poem, write song lyrics, write a journal, write a screenplay, write anything and everything. Learn to use language to shape your ideas.

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