JENNINE CAPÓ CRUCET: What kind of writing advice would I give to an aspiring writer? Do something else. Do anything else. If there is something else in your life that makes you as happy as the moment of creation when you're writing something, do that. Because this life is not one that comes with awards, validation.
Publishing is inherently biased, racist, sexist, prejudiced. You not do this for acclaim, because you will never be happy. You have to do this because you can't do anything else that makes you as happy. So try-- if you think you'll be just as happy being an engineer or a lawyer, if there's something else that brings you the same joy as the act of putting sentences together and hearing them click and lock into something, do that.
Because you will probably have more success and validation through that other thing than you will through writing, because it is a hard grind. But if you know that that's all you can do to be happy, and you have figured that out, the sooner you figure that out, the happier you will be.
But seriously, try to do something else. I tried so many other things. I tried to be so many other things. And nothing brought me that same happiness. And so I was able to admit that to myself and then go all in for it.
But if I would have been just as happy-- I worked as a social worker for a little while. And if that had brought me the same amount of joy-- it brought me a tremendous amount of joy. But it was not the same kind of joy. I was still stealing time from that job to write stuff. So the thing that you're stealing away time for, pursue that. So I guess that's two pieces of advice, two for one.