Goodreads asked Bonnie Blaylock:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Bonnie Blaylock Writer is an action vocation. What I mean is, get rid of the word "aspiring," buckle down and do the thing. Write. If you write, you're a writer. Allow yourself to say that out loud: I'm a writer. Then, make it so. Exercise that muscle every day. READ everything you can in genres you like and by authors you admire. Study their craft. You can take classes, attend workshops and get a degree, but it comes down to the 10,000 hours of work/practice making you an expert (Malcom Gladwell's book, Outliers). At some point, if you want others to read your writing, you have to be brave and start submitting your work.
There's a big learning curve to the "getting published" concept, and it took me several years and lots of failure to figure out what worked. Do your research and be patient. Don't stop. Remember, you're not "aspiring" any longer; you're a writer.

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