One Writer's Advice

I like this quote from William Faulkner. He wrote the The Sound and the Fury and The Light in August, among other titles, many of them considered Modern Classics. 


He said this: “Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.” 

I would add one more thing to Faulkner's advice. After your first draft, and it's no good, and it will stink for sure, especially if you are just starting out exploring your writing voice, don't throw it out like Faulkner suggests. Just put it in a box in the back of the closet and come back to it three, six months later. You might find a kernel in it that's worth revising.

In the meantime, keep writing. And like the carpenter's apprentice, you'll get better at this thing called writing the more you practice.