There is nothing like a simple notebook or a sheet of paper. They do not need to be recharged, can be used without electricity, and do not have to be upgraded.

Never compare your career with a pop singer's.

While an old pop singer's voice deteriorates, an old writer's mind matures.

When undergoing a crisis or when something upsets you, write something immediately. Channel your feeling into your creative work. This is the best way to experience and create that elusive type of Greek love, pathos. (The other types of love being eros, philia, and agape).

The feeling is the wind, your writing is the sail, the boat you are in is your writing career, and the water is literature.

In Your Writer's Notebook

Write at least one paragraph a day in your writer's notebook.

And don't stop there. Draw, paint, collage, or stitch something a day in the same notebook.

You will soon find that your visual art improves your writing, and vice-versa.

If the way to walk a mile is to take the first step, the way to write a novel is to pick up your pen.

Picking up your pen is the moment of Creation, the moment of the Big Bang, the moment of conception.

A writer always wakes up in the morning to a new day and a new life.

Never wake up to the past, to losses, to bereavements, to broken relationships. That would be equivalent to reading the same chapter in a book over and over again.

Always turn the page and move on.

Each day of your existence is a spiritual reincarnation. Face the blank canvas and the blank sheet of paper every morning with love and with hope, for there will be time enough to enjoy the gifts of the universe as well as make up for your shortcomings before the sun sets once again.

In-Depth Writing Exercise 5: Train Stations

This exercise does not have a time limit. It cannot be completed in one hour or at one sitting, and it requires your honesty and your introspection.

Take a box of crayons and a sheet of clean manila paper. Pin or tape the sheet on a board.

Draw a train line with several stations marking your journey and your accomplishments, big or small, as a writer. The track can be as long and as straight or as winding as you like, and you may locate as many stations as you like.

Which parts of the tracks are on level ground, in tunnels, spanning rivers, and going up and down gradated slopes? What do they represent in your writing career?

Name the stations and add on to them as necessary. Which stations were pleasant, which unpleasant? Who were the significant people you met on the train, who at the station?

What were the important lessons you learned at every trip and at every station?

Did your train ever get delayed or break down? If so, why?

Very soon you will see that you've come a long way, and that every success and every failure was well worth it.