I recently wrote a list of ten pieces of advice for aspiring writers and I left the most important one off the list! That piece of advice being — GET A DOG!

The list is for an interview the amazing young adult author Courtney Summers did with me for her blog. She asked me to give some advice to other writers going through their own twists and turns on the path to publication.

Here’s the revised list.

Top Ten Tips for Writers

1a. Get a dog: You need a dog because you will face a roadblock at some point in your writing. You will not be sure which scene to write next, or how to solve a certain problem, or how your character would handle a particular situation. THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO KNOW! Ready? Go for a walk. That’s right. Don’t stare at the word doc, don’t Twitter, don’t Facebook, don’t Google. (Trust me. I have tried all of these for motivation, inspiration, finding my muse and, yeah, they don’t work.) To solve the problem, you need to get away from the computer. You need to — gasp — go in your head. The answer lies there, not on the Web. The best way to get back in your head is to get out of the house. Leave the iPod behind. Leave the phone in your pocket. And leash up! Getting away from the noise invariably will bring clarity. OK, you might be thinking “But why do I need a dog?” Sure, you could walk sans dog. But the point is if you have a dog, you must go through this writing exercise every day. Plus, dogs have many other benefits too. There are too many to list, but among them are they don’t talk and they don’t talk back.

Here’s my personal solution for writing roadblock:

violet

And now here’s the rest of the list…

1. The universe isn’t punishing you when you get rejected. There is no curse against you. It’s just the way it goes–you will get rejected! It is an immutable law. You will also always disagree with why you were rejected.

2. Remember what Randy Pausch said in The Last Lecture: “Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want something.”

3. It’s not easy, it’s not supposed to be easy!

4. The little voice in your head is always right. Trust that little voice. I mean, that voice was crazy enough to tell you to try something as nutty as writing a novel! So when that voice says you need to make a big change or even a little change in your novel, listen to that voice.

5. Revise relentlessly and ruthlessly.

6. Don’t be a weenie when people give you criticism. It’s usually in your best interest.

7. Don’t rely on your boyfriend or your mom for the only feedback. Find other writers who also aspire to be published and become critique partners.

8. Find the agent who is right for you and then trust your agent–don’t micromanage her!

9. Offer sacrifices to the Gods of Publishing every day.

10. Email me and I will tell you my story to cheer you up, which involves several unpubbed manuscripts and gobs of rejections!