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Acclaimed British novelist Zadie Smith was asked by the Guardian for a list of her top ten tips for writers still making the long, hard climb to the peak that is publishing, and her list has some unique insights we have yet to see in the many nuggets of advice gleaned from great writers in the past.

Perhaps a few of these will help get you back to the drawing board, and before you know it, we’ll be quoting you.

1. When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

2. When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

3. Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Full story at Brain Pickings.

Writing tips.

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