Best Advice I Ever Got

Guest Blogger: Brad Meltzer

After my first novel was published, I struggled with the next one. I wasn’t worried what people thought (I was working on it long before the first one ever came out). And I wasn’t worried about the rejection (my first novel—still unpublished to this day—got me 24 rejection letters. To be clear, there were only 20 publishers; I got 24 rejection letters). But man, that next novel was kicking my ass.

It was my Mom who put the creative bug in me. Throughout her life, my mother worked for herself, decorating houses and being creative. And there’s a certain confidence—and an underlying insecurity—that goes along with being creative. Your job lives and dies on your taste…and on people believing in it. In every decision, you leap from that trapeze…you give your opinion…and you try to never think twice about if someone will catch you.

But as that novel was kicking my ass, a fellow writer gave me the best advice I’ve ever gotten. Sensing my fear and seeing my anxiousness, he said to me, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

So simple, right?

And so damn true.

Everyone wants to think that writing books is about sitting on the beach and drinking margaritas. But it’s not. It’s about one thing: writing. And writing. And writing.

As for the person who gave me the advice, I’ll spare him the public embarrassment. But he knows who he is. He’s the one who caught me as I was falling from that trapeze.

I owe him forever.

But the real truth? I’m on my eighth novel now. And it’s still—thankfully—as hard as ever.

Brad Meltzer is the #1 bestselling author of THE BOOK OF FATE and six other the bestsellers. He is the host of the History Channel’s new show, BRAD MELTZER’S DECODED. His newest thriller, THE INNER CIRCLE, will be released today, January 11, 2011. Read the first chapter here.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever got?

4 Comments:

  1. “If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

    You know, that’s an excellent point.

    Thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. Janice, I really needed to read this. Because I am struggling with a 3rd novel and its sequel – also with the collaboration, some of the stories I’m working with continue to test as well. But I will get through and the sequel as well. Thank you for posting this.
    Popple

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