I'm doing a bonus post this week because I really loved today's post by my brother, scriptwriter Doug Eboch, on Harnessing Your Fear of Embarrassment. While focused on screenplays, his advice pertains to novels as well. He makes the important point that "good enough" is never really good enough. Here's a quote:

"If you’re looking for an agent, think of a writer who you really admire.  Then imagine their agent reading your script. Are they going to be impressed enough to spend time out of their busy day to represent you when they could be focusing on that other great writer? Any agent worth anything has at least a couple of very talented clients.

"I find this is one of the hardest things to impress upon students. You can’t just write a script that works.  You have to write something that’s better than almost everything out there. You’re not just competing against other students or the people in your writers’ group. You’re competing against the best writers in the business."


Check out the full blog post here.