Lauren B. Davis

Writing is a practice, like meditation or prayer. You have to keep at it, day after day, even when it seems like absolutely nothing good is happening. Perhaps especially then.

When you are ready to publish, try not to attach too much of your ego and psyche to the business. Great reviews are wonderful, but they won't sustain you. Only more writing will sustain you.

Of course, there will always be business to attend to, but what I'm saying is, don't let it replace the love and vigor you put into your art.

If you are a real writer, then just surrender to the writer's life, all of it, even the bad stuff. When you do that, the beauty appears: the peace, the meaning, the joy, the fulfillment, the sense that you are doing what you were born to do and what could be better, in the end, than that?

Lauren B. Davis’s most recent work is the bestselling novel, THE EMPTY ROOM (HarperCollins, 2013), a searing, raw and powerful a portrayal of the chaos and pain of alcoholism. Named one of the “Best Books of the Year” by The National Post, and the Winnipeg Free Press, “Editors’ Pick” by Amazon and a “Critics’ Pick” by The Coast (Nova Scotia). Her previous novel, OUR DAILY BREAD, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named as one of the “Best Books of the Year” by The Globe & Mail and The Boston Globe.

She is also the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed novels, THE RADIANT CITY, a finalist for the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize; and THE STUBBORN SEASON, a named as one of the Top 15 Bestselling First Novels by Amazon.ca and Books in Canada. She has also published two short story collections, AN UNREHEARSED DESIRE and RAT MEDICINE & OTHER UNLIKELY CURATIVES. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards, the ReLit Award and she is the recipient of two Mid-Career Writer Sustaining grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts. She leads monthly SHARPENING THE QUILL writing workshops in Princeton, New Jersey.

http://www.advicetowriters.com/interviews/2014/2/25/lauren-b-davis.html