of us just look desperate. Know how to write. Really, it helps. Spend time thinking. Writing's only about 20% of the job. Sometimes less. There are no rules. Your job is to break the rules. Be wise .  Know more than your audience about something -- anything. Cut to the chase. The average attention span of the modern human is about half as long as whatever you're trying to tell him (or her). Get a life .  Breadth of knowledge is good, emotional depth is even better. Lie about everything except passion. Chairs can talk.  Pigs can fly.  But if you don't care about what you're saying, no one else will either. Listen to what other people have to say. If fifteen people say that your shoe is dull, heavy and cloddish, it probably is. But...when a publisher says 'that sort of book doesn't sell,' don't throw it away.  No one knows what sells. Until it does. Don't worry about your connections (or lack thereof). Anyone who's really good will get there.  Blind, dogged persistence passes the time between now and then. Edit ruthlessly. Do not fall in love with your own prose.  God invented the delete button to help you. Keep at it. It's a long game (ask Mary Berry about her 30 years in the wilderness). No one has an easy run from beginning to end. And that goes for life as well as writing. I feel the same way about the time I spent writing up to