1. Listen at least as much as you write. Writing without listening to the people, elements and sensations around you is preaching. I listen to my world constantly, with all my senses and sensibilities. I find I don’t learn much when I’m doing all the talking.

2. Don’t get bogged down with rules or guidelines that may apply to others but not you. There’s no magic number of words or minutes you must write per day, no standard length a chapter or a book should be, no words you should never use. Trust your rhythms and instincts. Avoid absolutes like must, always, or never.

3. Reject sabotaging language. The lexicon of writing and publishing is fraught with negatives like rejection, writer’s block, false start. Reframe these energy drainers as tools. Rejection is a favor from a publisher who wasn’t going to do right by your work — a bullet dodged. Writer’s block is an invitation to take time to refill your creative well, consider directions previously unexplored. There’s no such thing as a false start, but there are warm-ups, practice, creative experimentation, freewriting. I frequently remind myself to not be my own biggest obstacle.

4. Dream in stages. All writing starts with a sentence. Sentences become paragraphs, paragraphs form scenes, scenes make up chapters, and the totality of the chapters renders a book. To miss the joy of creating beautiful sentences that then flow into paragraphs, and on to scenes, etc. is, to me, to miss the point of writing at all.

5. Don’t compartmentalize your writing. A wise mentor many years ago wrote these word to live by: “Expand your definition of what it means ‘to be writing’ if your definition doesn’t include daydreaming, false starts, walks in the woods, reading or watching a bird. You can be ‘working on a piece’ in many different ways.”

[This is condensed from my interview with Authority magazine titled Five Things You Need to Know to Become a Great Author. Also available on my blog The Writer by Starlight.]

Let go of self-defeating language.
1. It's not "writer's block." It's the restorative pause, the time needed to refill the creative well, the release from arbitrary production "shoulds," the sensory replenisher. Trust the process.
2. It's not "rejection." It's the blessing of having avoided placing your work with the wrong entity.
3. You're not an "aspiring" writer. If you write, you're a writer. Period. Own it! (People who run every day but never race are still called runners.)
4. You don't have to have a "current project." You can just write. Anything. Trust the process.
5. There's nothing magic about 1,000 words a day or any other arbitrary number. Two perfect sentences can be a whole day's work (and worth every minute!) while 2,000 words can be boring shredder fodder. Just write. Trust the process.

(Did I mention, trust the process?)