My advice for writers

I actually heard this from Garth Nix, but I've said almost exactly the same thing, and I wanted to get it down before I forgot that Garth said it. Here's his advice on how to be a successful writer:

Write what you love. And get lucky.

It's so true. Nobody knows what the market will reward, so you can't write to the market even if you could force yourself to do that and still produce good work. Sure, you can sell out, toss in a few gratiutious sex scenes, an unnecessary explosion, a syrupy moral or two - who hasn't done that? But in the end, you have to write what you love, and hope someday the market catches up to you.

So, here's my program for becoming a professional writer.

1. Read
2. Write
3. Submit
4. Go to step 2.

I would add "marry a professional editor/author and steal her agent," but that's probably a little too specific.