Jane Green: “Writing Requires a PhD: Persistence, Humility, and Discipline”

Fail forward — if something gets in your way and stops you, keep moving and don’t dwell

Wake Up and Write is an advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Jane Green — New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one novels, including The Friends We Keep and Sister Stardust — who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.

“I always say to people that writing requires a PhD. In my world, that is persistence, humility, and discipline.”

“Persistence because there will be roadblocks every step of the way. You just have to keep going. Fail forward. If something gets in your way and stops you, keep moving. Don’t dwell on it. You keep moving forward.

Humility because particularly if you are an aspiring writer and a new writer, it’s so easy to think these are my words. They can’t be changed because this is my voice. I know what to say. I would say choose one or two people who you really trust and ask for honest advice. When they give it to you, listen to them. You’ve got to have humility.

Then discipline because it’s so hard to finish a book. Life always gets in the way. I always say the greatest training I ever had was that I started off as a feature writer. I was on a daily national newspaper. Every day, I had an editor standing over me saying, ‘Jane, we need a thousand words in an hour.’ I couldn’t say, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m not inspired today. Try me again tomorrow.’ I had to write a thousand words in an hour on whatever subject I was given whether I felt like it or not. That has served me so well. It requires tremendous discipline.

Set yourself a number of words or pages. It might be five hundred words. It might be half a page, whatever it is. Do not get up from your chair until those words are on the page.”