Writing Advice

 My three best pieces of writing advice:

First, read everything. Read the kinds of books you want to write, but read Arthur Ransome and Rudyard Kipling and LM Montgomery and Emily Dickinson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harper Lee, too, even if you write sci-fi or fantasy. And read newer books, Jacqueline Kelly and Trenton Lee Stewart and others. But don't just read - read with a pencil in hand a dictionary by your side. Take notes, circle passages, underline things - unless you don't own what you're reading, of course. Then use a notebook. Pay attention to diction, foreshadowing, symbolism, and other writers' tools. 

Second, learn to listen. Carry a notebook and pen everywhere, and write what you hear: quotes and phrases, the stories people tell. Listen with your eyes: see how people move and look and breathe when they speak. You may be people-watching in line at the grocery store or sitting in the corner at a family gathering. Watch people, describe them, write your own thoughts on the conversation. A little notebook could be your best friend.

Third is the most useful: at some point you must sit down and write words. Make a routine of it. Force yourself to stay in the chair (on your bed? on the floor?), and keep your hand moving across the paper (or keyboard, as the case may be). Whenever you stop, push yourself on and keep going. It doesn't have to be good - this is the raw, unedited material. You can edit later, but you can't edit if you haven't written anything. Butt-glue. Hand moving.