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Goodreads asked R. Roderick Rowe:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

R. Roderick Rowe There are professions where the only reason someone would enter them is due to internal drive and irresistible force. Writing is one of them. You don't write because you want to be famous, which is what many "aspiring" writers really want down deep inside. You write because you HAVE to; because the characters your over-active imagination has created are driving you to distraction with their antics. As a gay man, I've often told those far-right zealots who seek out gays to bully that NO one would ever volunteer to be beat up, spat upon, ridiculed, excluded from events and family gatherings, in order to love another man. You do that because you have no choice. Same thing for writers. It's not something you sit down one day and "just do it" as the old adage goes. So, is that advice? I don't know. There are an awful lot of awful writers out there who think they've just written the next great American novel. Maybe I'm one of them. I certainly see a lot of people running for cover when I mention my latest work. LOL

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