Things I've Learned While Writing...

Writing the first draft is an adventure:
I truly enjoy the first draft. I love discovering the characters as I write. I write with a very loose plot line. I am a mix of pantser and outliner. This way I always have a goal to go to, while still allowing myself to take advantage of the sparks of ideas I have. I am always amazing myself with the things I come up with. For example: I was writing a scene were the MC overhears the one of the support characters propose to the other character. I had no clue that this was going to happen until my fingers hit the keyboard, but I loved it. This was definitely not planned, but it allowed me to delve more into the other characters in a way that was much better than my MC just finding out that the other characters were dating.

Writing is trial and error:
There is so much that I write that ends up being changed. Either I am writing and I realise that a character is not being true to themselves or the plot is spinning in a direction that is not benefitial to the story. Always ask youself, "Is this working?"

Don't be afraid to drastically change things. It might be for the better. Your words are not permanent and they can always be changed back.

Rewrite your beginning:
Your beggining is crap, unless its you have already rewritten it over and over. Beggining are meant for figuring things out. Once you have your ideas set, you can polish them. Do polish them, your readers with thank you.

Hook you reader on the first page:
This is huge. I put down J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was a kid, because the first page bored me. I didn't pick it up again till a year later. I love the Harry Potter series, they were the books that taught me how to really read and enjoy books. If you can't hook your reader, they are not going to read your book.

Read:
Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. Read your shampoo bottle (I'm not kidding, those copy writers sure know how to make things sound enticing.) There are always thing you can learn from other others, even poor ones.

Keep a journal:
Write daily. Write down every profound thought you have. Don't throw away anything even if its bad. It can always be edited or rewritten into something marvelous.  Even if you don't, its helpful reminder to see how far you have come.

Do not wait for inspiration:
You are stalling! It is the same thing as writers' block. It is a myth. Okay, even I feel it sometimes. I stall because I don't know where I am going, but do you stop living and breathing because you don't know where you are going? No! Inspiration will come to you when you are ready, but you need to make yourself ready. Feed your mind, practice writing, and don't stall.

Edit:
There are always things that can be made smoother, ideas more concrete, dialog more true to the character. I know editing can be like pulling teeth, but a story needs to be deconstructed so it can be made into something better.

Research:
Can give you amazing ideas or it can bog you down. Take it all with a grain of salt.

Your charaters will change:
It's inevitable, you can't expect them not to unless you put them in a glass jar and never let anything happen to them. You may not always like the changes, but it means the characters are real.

Everything and everyone has a reason:
Whether you reveal the reason is up to you, but everything should have a reason.

When you write new impostant things:
Go back and foreshadow, even the littlest hint helps. Don't pull punches out of the blue on your readers, they will hate you for it.

Cut the cliche's:
You reader will notice, guaranteed. Also cut references to things that detract fro your story. I recently read a YA Fantasy Romance book where the narrator made an allusion that screamed Spider Man. It just did not fit. That stuck with me the entire book. Also multiple characters cannot use the same odd word(s) that are not used in their time/place period. Read another book where four different characters of all different ages used the word "rabble-rouse." It stuck out like a sore thumb, pun intended.

Just keep writing:
No matter what anyone says about it, just keep writing. As long as you enjoy it, you shouldn't care what anyone else things about you writing (this is also good life advice.) Do get edited when you can, take the suggestions and think about them. Use them if they are good, if not, toss them. Don't let it be too personal when you get edited, the person is critiquing your writing, not you.