1. Edit.
2. If I was to write a book of writing advice, I would include every writing metaphor that has ever existed. The ink is your blood. Your heart is on the page. The page is a window. The reader's imagination lives in an envelope. There are eyes on the ceiling, don't look.
3. Every story must have a beginning and an end. This usually starts with the first word and ends with the last word. The key thing to remember is that the words in between can pretty much be in any order according to common rules of grammar and accepted tropes of written communication.
4. The fatter the spine, the more words there are inside. Depending on font size. Depending on paper weight. Depending on margins. Depending on binding. Depending on a lot of things like so much of life.
5. Read out loud.
6. If you lose your writing mojo, take a walk along a hillside or along the banks of a river or around the block although do not take a walk to the bottom of an ocean and do not take a walk to your evil nemesis and do not take a walk into quicksand and do not take a walk into anything bad.
7. Imagine your writing is a season or a time of day. Now replace that season or time of day with your writing. Your writing is like your writing. Once you realise this, you will lead a more productive life.
8. Do you write for yourself or do you write for a reader? Do you write literary fiction or are you genre? What do you think of the tension between subject classifications for marketing purposes and an author's dislike of being pigeon-holed? Do you hire your words or do you buy them outright? I am typing this paragraph and you are reading this paragraph but we are not doing it at the same time. Someone explained that to me once but it is still confusing.
9. Hold onto the thread. Don't let go.
10. When typing a top ten list, it is best to explain it first. Not only does it orientate the reader, it provides focus for your list. Plantation immortality lemon. Don't lose focus. I'm not sure where we have been but neither do we know where we are going. Don't throw away your books: the future is empty and wet.
