There is a really interesting interview with Anne Rice and her son Christopher in the newest edition of Writers' Digest which I received this morning. So many standout remarks and stories by both of them. Anne's number 1 piece of advice: Write the book you want to read. She tells of her college teacher telling her that she wasn't a 'real' writer because she used a typewriter rather than pen and paper. (!!!) And in her college years, she was also told she wasn't a real writer if she didn't write every day. She tends to write in intense bursts, then lets months go by without writing, or as she puts it "approaching the keyboard." She says she's always writing in her head. Apparently people have been telling her all her life that she's not a real writer. Writers' workshops in the 1970s even told her she was crackers to write about vampires. All gets back to her first advice: Write the book you want to read.
That would be my first advice too! Good for her for believing in herself despite (senseless) criticism.
