Some Good Advice

I've read a lot of writing books, some with advice more valuable than others. I have yet to read a book that I felt was a waste of my time. Some have simply been more valuable than others. Incidentally, one of the most valuable pieces of advice I ever gleaned from a book, I can't remember where I read it. Go figure.

The advice was simple: write every day. Even if you just sit in front of MS Word and type "I can't think of anything" a few hundred times, at least you're in the mindset to get things going. That's really important for all creative people, but especially important for professional writers. I've had more than a few days when I woke up and the last thing I felt like doing was writing. It takes a monumental effort on some days just to get your ass in gear and turn the computer (or typewriter) on and do anything even remotely productive with it.

It's equally difficult to find the time to write when you're writing both for business and pleasure. When you've spent a whole day working on a freelance project, one of the last things you'll feel like doing is writing some more, even if it is for yourself. But you've got to.

This is the best advice I can give to any aspiring writer: write ever single day. It doesn't matter what you write, so long as you sit down for at least an hour or two and write.