Three simple things: Write about what excites and moves you the most, otherwise your enthusiasm will never sustain you through an entire novel; be persistent and disciplined, otherwise someone more determined will take your place; and be humble enough to accept editorial criticism and learn all you can about your craft.

Paint. That’s the magic word. Paint pictures with words. That’s the greatest advice I can give anybody. Paint pictures with words. The picture will appear in the imagination so the person reading can say, “I can see that.”

I am often asked for advice and I must tell you frankly that I have none to give. There's a reason. If you want to become a lawyer, there is a path you follow and it is definable. And that is true for many sorts of jobs. But the entertainment business is different. There is no defined path.

Everybody comes to it a different way. And the truth is that everybody has to find their own way. This is a business that demands aggressiveness and individual get-up-and-go. So in the end you'll have to do what I did, and everybody else you can think of did. Figure it out for yourself and make it happen.

However, I will say this: the first step is to stop asking for advice.

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the clean direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
4. In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please, will you do my job for me.”
5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Fellow Melody Kondrael,

I hadn't realized that was a screenwriter quote. Thanks for the correction - it's important to know.

Desiderio Domini,
Pavalini