When Adichie talks to younger writers, a handful of themes keep coming back. She wants them reading constantly, caring about their subject, and refusing to soften the work just to be liked.

The Direct Answer
Read widely, care deeply about your subject, and forget about being likable.
She's told writers to read even what they dislike, and warned that without deep caring the work goes arid, across interviews and talks.

Read, Then Read More

Adichie's first piece of advice is almost always the same. Read, and read widely. She's said she isn't sure anyone can write well without reading well, and she pushes writers to read outside their taste, including work they actively dislike, just to know what's out there. Reading, for her, is where the full range of what's possible on the page actually gets learned. It's less a warm-up than the foundation everything else sits on.

Read and read and read. I'm not sure that one can be a good writer without being a good reader.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Image

Care Deeply, or Don't Bother

Ask her whether you can write emotionally true fiction about a subject you don't care about, and the answer is flat. You can't. She's said the caring has to run deep, or the whole thing turns arid. This connects to her larger idea of radical honesty, the emotional truth she thinks separates real fiction from work that's merely competent. If the feeling isn't there for you as the writer, a reader will sense the hollow underneath it.

Forget About Being Liked

Her sharpest advice is about likability. If you write while worrying whether readers, or your family, will approve of you, she says you'll pull your punches and lose the honesty that makes a story land. She tells writers to set that worry down and accept that some people won't like the work, and some won't get it at all. That's simply the cost of telling the story straight.

See how this shows up in practice in the full Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing routine.

What You Can Steal