7. Personal satisfaction facilitates good writing.
My own life has taught me that fundamental dissatisfaction, inner turmoil, and strife do not improve writing. If you are a person who has cultivated a deep awareness, then you can describe those emotional states in a compelling way without having to create them. Perspective is key because no can describe what they cannot acknowledge.
8. Learn to release the work.
This was by far the hardest lesson for me to learn. You will inevitably become too intimate with the work and trusted readers speed the writing process. Writers must entrust their work to other people to put books into production.
9. Never cheat your reader.
When you take shortcuts in the work, whether technical or emotional shortcuts, you alienate your readers and risk losing their trust. Do it enough times and they will stop reading your work.
10. A writer writes.
Talking about writing, dreaming about a writing life, filing papers, and sharpening pencils are never substitutes for writing. A writer makes her way to a completed page, draft, or manuscript one word at a time. Get started and enjoy the ride.
