Or maybe don’t. But if you want to get paid, write every day.
Hone the craft.
Start small—begin with articles, blogs, and community publications.
Accept opportunities that come your way, even if they aren’t glamorous.
Don’t isolate yourself—interaction with others gives you fuel to write.
Find a writing group and soak up as much as you can.
Welcome feedback.
Listen to critique.
Don’t argue with good advice.
Ignore bad advice.
Learn enough about writing to know the difference.
Don’t defend bad writing.
Give yourself permission to write a bad first draft.
Don’t give yourself permission to let it hang around for long.
Thank others who take the time to read your work and give you honest opinions.
Don’t be sensitive about suggestions from others.
If you have to explain what you wrote, it isn’t ready for the public yet. Re-write it.
Learn the writing business—tools, finances, taxes, publishing industry trends.
If you think you’re a rock star maybe you should learn to play the guitar.
Writing is about communicating ideas with as much impact as possible.
The key to communicating is listening.
Ask questions.
Great writers are astute observers.
Pay attention to detail even in mundane tasks.
What’s the takeaway, the “one thing”?
Become adept with basic grammar.
Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends.
Stay away from long narratives of explanation.
Use dialogue to break up narrative.
Vary sentence length.
End sentences with power words.
Vary paragraph lengths.
Go to a writer’s conference. Go to several.
Get to know other writers.
Network with writers, agents, and publishers.
Learn how to write a good query letter.
Learn how to write a book proposal.
Identify your passion and your unique message–focus on it.
Establish a platform.
Build a good web page, or hire someone to do it.
Blog at least twice a week. Three times is better. Be consistent.
Build an email list.
Send your blog to your subscribers.
Establish a social media presence—Facebook and Twitter, and then others.
Share, like, and retweet other writers’ posts.
Guest blog and invite guest bloggers on your site.
Announce your latest post on your social media platforms and link to your blog.
Create sharable posts.
Offer a free download or book in exchange for a sign-up.
Be positive, ask questions, engage with commenters, use images and videos.
Don’t be obnoxious on social media—limit pitches, don’t talk about food, and don’t be negative. Yes, I know….
Learn the art of public speaking.
Go to speakers’ conferences.
Look for opportunities to speak—women’s groups, business lunches, community activities.
Develop several good talks with your unique branded message.
For your first book, choose to write what you are most passionate about—it will probably become your brand.
Writers have no option—learn marketing techniques and methods. Be savvy.
Learn advantages and disadvantages of indie and traditional publishing.
Learn Kindle, Nook, iBookstore, and other digital platforms.
Become familiar with print-on-demand options.
Explore distribution options.
If you’re not good with technology, get to know techno-gurus.
Write wow content.
Read in your genre. Read writers you admire. Read books, articles, and blogs about writing.
Don’t bury your power words—use them at the end of your sentences.
Kill the adjectives and adverbs.
Use strong verbs and nouns.
Nix the passive voice—use the active voice.
Most stories work best with simple past tense.
If you’re introducing backstory, use “had” once, then go to simple past tense.
Semicolons are the devil, and exclamation points are their next-of-kin.
Don’t bury your hook.
Hook readers in the first sentence.
The first page needs to convince readers you know how to write.
Don’t start with backstory or setting descriptions.
Begin by plopping your reader into the story.
Don’t head-hop.
Don’t navel-inspect—if you’re too introspective, you’ve forgotten about the reader.
Learn to be vulnerable without being self-absorbed.
It’s about the audience, not you.
Okay, maybe it’s about you, too. But give your ego a boot.
And if you want to connect with readers, keep your audience in mind as you write.
If your audience isn’t interested, but you still want to write it, put it in your private journal.
“There are” flags tired writing. Put it away and come back when you’re fresh.
Anecdotes, statistics, and quotes give authority to your writing.
Fling the rough draft on paper without editing. Just write.
Edit later.
Let it breathe—set it aside for a few days before you edit.
Learn big picture edits: Does it move the plot, is it true to character, is the dialogue real?
Learn copy edits: Grammar. Misspellings. Punctuation. Redundancy. Is it clear?
Do you know your hiccups—those words that pop up annoyingly and distract your reader?
Get good tools to guide you with the editing process.
Follow top notch sites that are your go-to references.
Be ruthless—delete everything that doesn’t move your story forward. Delete redundancies and clichés. Delete “has” and “had” and their wicked kinfolks, delete adverbs and adjectives…delete, delete, delete. Tighten the text—is it absolutely necessary or are you being self-indulgent?
Don’t be paralyzed by fear—it may not be good, but that’s okay.
Don’t give in to perfectionism—it will never be perfect. Know when to say “enough.” Let it go.
You can always make changes on the next printing.
Befriend a good editor. Give her flowers and dark chocolate.
