What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Being a Writer #11: Andrew Westoll

Andrew Westoll is an award-winning writer and former primatologist, author of the bestselling memoir The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary. His new novel is The Jungle South of the Mountain.
Andrew is a professor of creative writing at the University of Toronto in Scarborough where I was recently writer-in-residence.

What do you wish someone had told you before you published your first book?That my first book would probably disappear from view quite quickly, but that it’s possible to see this as a good thing, a very good thing. Ego in check, time on my hands, I just sat down to write the next one.

What advice do you give to emerging writers?

Advice for emerging writers: "Never use any word for but but but.” I can’t claim this one. It comes from Keith Maillard at UBC, and I have never forgotten it. It speaks to a common mistake emerging writers make, which is to shoot for the expensive words when the more affordable ones would do.