(I wrote this a while back, but found it again this morning. The challenge, for those writers among us: what ten things have you learned about writing?)
1. If your characters are incapable of surprising you, they're not real enough.
2. Details always end up mattering more than you think they will.
3. There is no such thing as enough research. Eventually, you have to stop researching and write, but you will never, ever feel as though you've done enough research.
4. It's a fatal error to stop reading while you're writing. Even if it *is* really damned tempting. (I learn this one over and over again.)
5. Infodumping is not a nice thing to do to readers. Avoid the temptation.
6. You have to tell the story that wants to be told. I didn't really set out to write two books that between them total nearly 600k words (thus rendering them probably unsaleable as a first-time author), but that was the story that wanted to be told.
7. You have to know the rules of English grammar, style, and punctuation. Only then can you break them with impunity, secure in the knowledge that your rule-breaking isn't just sloppy work but instead a way of letting your story breathe.
8. Everyone says it, but it's very true: write every day.
9. There are three friends that every writer really needs to have: one friend who loves everything you write, one who can serve as a sounding board for your ideas, and one with an editor's brain who can nitpick things for you. Treasure these friends and treat them well.
10. In the end, you are writing for an audience of one: yourself. Write the books and stories and poems you want to read.
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