Are you an aspiring writer who thinks you’ll write a novel when you have more time or your children are older? If so, author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House has some advice for you. 

“Often you cannot create the perfect conditions for your writing,” he says. “I think if you wait around for that, you’re never going to get anything written.” Silas knows this from experience, having written his first three novels when his children were small. “Sometimes you just have to do it,” he continues.

Silas shares a multi-step writing prompt that will help you create vivid characters, whether you’re working on fiction, poetry, or memoir. It’s the perfect opportunity to stop waiting and start writing.

About Silas House

Silas House is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of seven novels, four plays, and one book of creative nonfiction. His writing has been featured in Time, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many other publications.

House currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky and is a 2022 winner of the Duggins Prize, the largest award for an LGBTQ writer in the nation. He has been a finalist for a Grammy Award and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. 

His most recent novel, Lark Ascending, won the Southern Book Prize and the Editor’s Award from Booklist, among other honors.