Religious reverence for one's own job, even if the job is worth doing, is a sexual turnoff.

Technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit.

Every paragraph should accomplish two goals: advance the story, and develop your characters as complex human beings.

There are two wrong reactions to a rejection slip: deciding it's a final judgment on your story and/or talent, and deciding it's no judgment on your story and/or talent.

Changers are characters who alter in significant ways as a result of the events of your story. They learn something or grow into better or worse people, but by the end of the story they are not the same personalities they were in the beginning. Their change, in its various stages, is called the story's emotional arc.

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.

You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.