13

1. Write bravely.
2. Write to get it written.
3. Write to polish your talent.
4. Write about nothing—it’s the only thing you’re truly expert at.
5. Write until someone pays you to write, and then write some more.
6. Write to make sense of nonsense and nonsense of sense.
7. My secret of writing? Butt to chair; finger tips to keys; mind to the matter at hand.
8. My story must have ideas bigger than a few hundred 6x9 pages sandwiched between a glossy cover.
9. I never find answers in my stories—when I write, I continually find more questions.
10. I’m elated when a reader is angry with what I’ve written—at the very  least I’ve elicited an emotional response. My worse nightmare is a reader who shrugs his shoulders and declares, “Eh.”
11. I’m like a duck on the water when I write: You see me cool and calm on the surface, but what you don’t see is me paddling like hell underneath to keep afloat and to keep going in a certain direction.
12. Most writers have a moral compass. The problem is  they are turning in every direction trying to find a directional point that helps them feel comfortable rather than simply following true North.
13. I breathe; therefore, I write.

See you on the bookshelves.
Larry Mike Garmon