If you aspire to be a writer, or are already a professional, perhaps you need more than the most elaborate laptop on the market and all the typical writer’s tools. Maybe you should invest in a punching bag, too, or some other appropriate way to vent your anger.

“I was faced with the simplest life question I’ve ever had to answer. I asked myself whether, on my deathbed, I wanted to sigh and say, ‘I could have written a novel’ or ‘I wrote a novel.’ Believe me, the answer was simplicity itself.” — Elizabeth George

Advice for Aspiring Writers from Alice Munro, a woman about whom Cynthia Ozick wrote, “She is our Chekhov, and is going to outlast most of her contemporaries.”

Aspiring writers are often told at writer’s conferences, “Don’t quit your day job!” These words frequently come from writers/agents/publishers who have been in the business long enough to know that having a career as a writer can be the Mt. Everest of dreams.

An author gives advice to aspiring writers: READ