My Advice from WIFYR 2012:

Don't wait to be “in the zone” as a writer. No one can tell the difference in the words you write in the zone and the words you write out of the zone except for you.

The middle always seems to take twice as long as you think it will.

Reward yourself for finishing a book. Reward yourself for finishing a chapter. There aren't trophies for this, but there should be.

You are in this for the long haul. Don't use up all your energy on one book. Don't ruin your health or your emotional well-being or your relationships for one book.

Keep focused on your own book and your own career. Don't pay attention to what other people seem to be succeeding at that distracts you from your own convictions.

Figure out the difference between the feeling of having gone off in the wrong direction in a manuscript and the normal feeling of the difficult middle.

Figure out what you are afraid of and deal with it. Find ways to short circuit your internal editor.

Stop telling yourself you aren't good enough. It doesn't matter if you write a good first draft. What matter is if you can rewrite well. And you can learn that.

Listen to what other people are telling you about what kind of writing you do well.

But also listen to yourself and what sings to you in your writing.

Let go of your attachment to the words you have written down the first time. Try rewriting everything from scratch. You've probably learned a lot in the meantime and it will be much better.

Don't worry about writing the right first chapter on the first draft. The first chapter will often come last.

Every action scene needs to be followed by a reaction scene so that the reader has a sense of why what happened matters.

Only three made up words allowed per chapter.

Only one paragraph of exposition allowed at a time. Must be interspersed with interesting conflict.

Readers read novels not for character, but for relationships. Make sure every relationship has conflict.

Dialog should not be flat. That is, for every word on the page, the characters should mean a lot that isn't written down, but can be inferred.

Keep away from Evil McEvil characters.

When beginning a novel, don't start with an explosion or a chase. Start with a smaller conflict that allows the reader to get to know the character. Then move to a larger one.

Make sure that the parable you want to tell in your speculative world is more than simply a parable.

Make sure that pretty language isn't getting in the way of your reader understanding clearly what is happening in the story.

Tell as much as possible in-scene, including flashbacks.

Give physical details that are unique and not throwaway.

Start every chapter with a character's name and a location and time. It can be as easy as “The next day, John was in his bedroom . . .”

Use a plot shape that isn't the standard single rising tension to climax and denouement. There are many others.

Avoid dialog where characters tell each other what they already know: “As you know, Captain, the Xindi have killed 7 million people and we must stop them now from destroying humanity competely.”

Not everything has to have the fate of the universe depending on it.