Advice for aspiring writers

When I was in college, I studied Theater. To anyone who knows me well, this is not a surprise. I love emotion: comedy, drama--all of it. We did a competition piece at college about the Holocaust and the visiting judge made a comment about how some of the actors' hands needed to be acting. During an emotional parting scene, our hands just kind of hung there instead of caressing or grasping, clasping in love, regret, longing, or desperation. It was a small detail that he saw our director missed. There was one piece of advice the visiting judge gave our troupe which has stuck with me over the years: "Continue to study the craft."

I'd like to give that as advice to any writer, but particularly aspiring authors: Learn the craft, continuously learn the craft.

I first started writing ten years ago. It took me a whole year to finish my first novel. Then I rewrote it a bazillion times, learning how to craft scenes, sentences, and chapters. I learned plot structure, conflict, and character. Then I wrote my second and the third which is published. But it took me years for my skills to catch up to the stories I had swirling in my head.

Can you think of other fields where we can constantly refine our craft?