What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.

Inertia is the death of creativity

Establishing and keeping a routine can be even more important than having a lot of time.

If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started "being creative," well, I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.

Your brain gets too comfortable in your everyday surroundings. You need to make it uncomfortable. You need to spend some time in another land, among people that do things differently than you. Travel makes the world look new, and when the world looks new, our brains work harder.

You'll either find the answer or you'll come up with a better question.

The best advice is not to write what you know, it's to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best - write the story you want to read. The same principle applies to your life and your career.