These are some of the important things that I learned while writing, editing, and publishing my book.
1) Don't Start Writing Unless you're Serious About It.
A lot of people thing that becoming an author is easy. I'm here to tell you that it's not. Writing a book, a blog, a screenplay, or anything else is a serious time commitment. Being a writer is a hard job and not for the faint of heart.
2) Write for Yourself First
When I first started, I researched a lot about writing and about any advice I could find about starting out and writing a book. One piece of advice I read was to always write for the reader. I disagree with this ninety-nine percent of the time. If you write for the reader, their will be a lot of scenes that won't work or feel right. And then you might end up regretting the decisions you made after publishing. Write the book that you need to and hopefully readers will line up
3) Give Yourself a Deadline
Try to give yourself a reasonable deadline when starting a project. If you don't have a deadline, you will procrastinate and it will take longer that you wan it to, to be finished.
4) Take A Break
Do not spend twelve hours staring at a screen writing without taking a break. Writing non-stop will burn you out fast and might even shut down your mind for a while. Your mind needs rest whether it's minutes or hours. Take a coffee break now and then or a snack break.
5) Come Back to Your Project
Don't finish a first draft and think it's ready to publish, it's not. Put your book, novel, screenplay, television show, or anything else away for a week or two. Then go over it. You'll find their will be a couple of things that missed when writing and need to change.
6) Do Not Rush To Publish
I think this is the most important advice I could give you. Take your time. Don't publish because you thing you've been working on a project to long or because someone is pushing you to. Publish because you're happy with the project and think that it's ready to be out in the world. I have spent more time writing my first book than I want to admit but it was well worth it.
I hope that this helps you in anyway possible and would love to hear what your favorite writing advice is.