On Writing-Part 1

Back in high school, one of the elective classes I took in my senior year was Creative Writing. I only learned a little bit from that class. I learned a lot more from writing for the school literary magazine, because I got feedback from other students who read what I'd written.
There are no real secrets to writing. There is no body of arcane or occult knowledge that will enable someone to write. There are really only two rules to writing. I read them so long ago that I can't recall the original source, but those rules are:
1) You must WRITE.
2) You must FINISH what you write.

Everything after that is window-dressing. Someone can learn to write reasonably well by studying the styles of authors that they like and adopting whatever they think they could use. I don't recommend going with writers who show up regularly in school reading assignments. Herman Melville's style just won't work in the 21st Century, for example, no matter how many students are compelled to read 'Moby Dick'. Remember, you're looking for something that YOU can use, not something an English Lit teacher throws at you because it's been on the curriculum for decades.
This is not to say that the 'classics' aren't worth reading. But reading and writing are two different exercises.
Not everybody wants to write. This is just as well, or there would be no readers. Not everybody who writes should feel compelled to write The Great American Novel either. But for anyone out there who really has an itch to tell stories in print, remember above all these two iron rules:
1) You must WRITE.
2) You must FINISH what you write.