1. Write What You Like. Let your authentic author voice shine through by following what you like, not what you should write.

2. Say What You Mean. Be bold in sharing your ideas, even if they might not be what people expect.

3. Avoid excessive adverbs and adjectives by using the verb or noun that expresses what you need it to: instead of said loudly, write shouted. 

4. When you use them, have adverbs and adjectives do double duty by sharing something about the narrator's emotional state.

5. When you describe a setting or object or person, share only what is absolutely necessary for the reader's understanding of the scene. 

6. Of the things you add to scene, share details and be specific. instead of blonde, write golden tresses threaded with copper shimmering in the sunlight.

7. Read widely. Let yourself be inspired from a wide range of sources.

8. Combine ideas in new and unexpected ways. Like mystery and romance? Why not combine them.

9. Pay attention to what you like, and why you like it. Your favourite TV series might appeal to you for a very different reason than it appeals to your best friend. This uniqueness is part of your author voice.

10. Vary your sentence structure. 

11. Vary your sentence length.

12. Pay attention to the feel of a sentence. Sometimes, dropping words or adding extras can alter the feel and the mood of the entire paragraph. 

13. Ignore the rules. (Not blatantly, but know where you can bend them in the name of artistic liberty!)

14. Keep paragraphs short. 

15. Put important information at the beginning or end of a paragraph or sentence. (Readers tend to skip the middle)

16. Decide on the feel or emotion you want to generate with your story, and focus on that as you write.

17. Share your POV character's thoughts and emotions. Let their emotions guide the readers'.

18. Draw from your real life experiences to better write the emotional impact of fictional experiences.

19. Picture yourself as the character in the scene. Write from there.

20. Be prepared to learn continuously.

21. Edit your own work (then hire a professional to take it to the next level). Editing is where we learn how to write better.

22. Know your purpose / your reason for writing. Remind yourself of it when you think about skipping writing time or when you get bogged down in that hard scene.

23. Everything is writable. Every story / chapter / scene can be shared in a way that is both effective and moving. We just need to discover it.

24. Characters have motivations of their own. Understand what each person in a scene (and behind the scenes) is working towards and struggling with.

25. Treat your world like a character, working independently towards its own goals.

27. Understand why the main story conflict exists before trying to find the solution.

28. Balance creating with listening. Your story is always talking to you, listen to it. Allow it. 

29. Let writing be easy and fun. If it's not fun, figure out why and how to make it so.

30. Understand why your story can only end one way. Writing a romance? Why can only these two people be together, why not someone else? Writing an adventure? Why can the problem only be overcome by this hero? Writing a mystery? Why can the mystery be solved only by this detective in only this way?

31. Let yourself lose control. Discover the story instead of writing it.

32. Always write what your character/world is doing, not what they're not doing.

33. Put the reader in the scene by describing what is happening, not how the character is experiencing what is happening.

34. Tell us details. Let the reader interpret the meaning.

35. Plot your main character's internal belief shift before plotting your external story.

36. Build your subplots to support your main character's internal belief shift.

37. Pay attention to the culture your character grew up with, and what makes them different.

38. Understand why each character believes what they do.

39. Understand how characters' beliefs shape their actions.

40. Believe that you too can be a writer. (Note: this is the hard work of writing a novel, believing it enough to actually show up and do it.)

41. Create a personal connection between your protagonist and your antagonist.

42. Experiment with different styles and POV. They all have their benefits and drawbacks. Which is best for your story?

43. Give your characters goals that existed before the story problem disrupted their lives. They were working towards something before the story disrupted their lives. Let them keep working on it.

44. Follow every unique story element you introduce to its conclusion. Have a cool technology idea for your steampunk fantasy? How does it impact the story?

45. Always be aware of what the reader may pick up on a foreshadowing, even if you didn't intend it to be.

46. Create a sense of anticipation or mystery to keep readers reading.

47. Be sure that for every action, there is an equal and horrible consequence. Even when your character experiences success, that success needs to be hollow, creating more problems than it solved.

48. Remove any hint of coincidence. Even the beginning... is there something the character has done to bring this unfortunate story problem unto themselves?

49. Never be afraid to rewrite, bring in new ideas, or take the story in a whole different direction. Or take it back to the original again. Experiment.