Goodreads asked Paula Whyman:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Paula Whyman Read! People always say this, but it's true. Read everything you can get your hands on. It doesn't all have to be great literature. I read good stuff and garbage when I was growing up, everything from Dostoevsky to VC Andrews. Most of it will teach you something useful, and much of it will take you somewhere interesting outside of yourself. And also, live. What I mean is, get out in the world. Write when you have some life experience that informs your work--I don't mean 'write what you know'! I mean, write about what startles you, what makes you curious, what makes you anxious, what fills you with wonder, what you don't understand. I think that the more you experience, the more there will be that you don't understand.

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