A good cover and title is very important to me. The title should be exciting, but the details in a cover are where my eyes gravitate to. I know the traditional saying is "don't judge a book by it's cover", but I, myself, tend to be more attracted to a books cover, even before I read the synopsis. I don't always lean towards bright/ vivid colours, although those are eye catching, but sometimes the plain/ simple coves hook me. And, when those covers have an appealing title, nothing is more perfect. I've some to realize that I don't care for covers that are just abstract art with colours. I prefer a cover that has a focal point.
To finish the manuscript before setting it aside. It took me eight years to complete my first manuscript, all because I had no idea what to do with it. Even if I still had no idea what to do with it, I would tell myself to "just finish it". It's always easier to go back and edit and change something that's completed versus something that still needs fresh ideas in order to end, while keeping true to the feeling one had while writing the piece many years ago. I found myself going back to rewrite my whole manuscript multiple times before I could grasp the feeling(s) I wanted to express in the final chapters. This slowed down my process ever more and held me back.
My third grade teacher inspired me to start writing. She gave each kid in the class a 'creative writing book' where we were made to write whatever stories we wanted that only got submitted to her. We didn't have the share them with the rest of the class, and we weren't graded on spelling or storytelling, just simply on progression/ completion of the task to hand something in. I used to have a hard time with reading and spelling during elementary school, so I know my creative writing made zero sense to my teacher, but it didn't matter. This, I believe, is what inspired me to start writing.
