Books, and reading, and more books.

Confession time. In today's Internet age, we (I) are easily distracted, entranced by shiny devices that play games and movies and music, and an IM is a tiny shot of dopamine that our brains crave much more than any stupid learning given by BOOKS.

That said, a writer needs to read. It's not just a "what's happening in my genre?" issue, but it's a deeper, subconscious issue where your little brain learns vocabulary and turn of phrase and storytelling. If you don't read, you can't write. On a...