Patricia C. Wrede
1. Learn to touch-type. Learn to spell (yes, even with spell-checkers). Learn grammar and syntax until it is burned into your backbrain.
2. Write. Write lots. Write every day, even if only a sentence. Practice is practice, and writing takes a lot of it. Writing every day also gets one in the habit of doing it, which is equally important.
3. Read. Read lots. Read all kinds of books, good, bad, ones you like and ones you don't. When you read a book you don't like or think is bad, stop and try to figure out exactly WHY you think it's bad. Is it that you don't like talking-animal stories (a matter of YOUR taste), or is it that the dialog doesn't sound real (a matter of the WRITER'S skills)? For extra credit, try to figure out why you like the books you like - what is the author doing right?
4. Have a life. If the only things you ever do are read and write, you won't have a lot to write about. It doesn't matter what else you do - football, gardening, skiing, cooking, fencing, music - but find other things you also like to do, and DO them.
2. Write. Write lots. Write every day, even if only a sentence. Practice is practice, and writing takes a lot of it. Writing every day also gets one in the habit of doing it, which is equally important.
3. Read. Read lots. Read all kinds of books, good, bad, ones you like and ones you don't. When you read a book you don't like or think is bad, stop and try to figure out exactly WHY you think it's bad. Is it that you don't like talking-animal stories (a matter of YOUR taste), or is it that the dialog doesn't sound real (a matter of the WRITER'S skills)? For extra credit, try to figure out why you like the books you like - what is the author doing right?
4. Have a life. If the only things you ever do are read and write, you won't have a lot to write about. It doesn't matter what else you do - football, gardening, skiing, cooking, fencing, music - but find other things you also like to do, and DO them.
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