1. Act As If: As a writer, people think you’re a lot smarter than you really are. Act as if that’s true!
2. Write Good: Grammar and spelling are like a handshake and a smile in creating a good first impression. Offering up unsmiling, limp-wristed suspicion of your motives is no way to begin a conversation.
3. Embrace Chaos: Do not fear conflict. Instead look for the valuable lessons it offers about yourself and others. 
4. Eavesdrop: The best lessons about the overall operating system of the human race often come by way of spying on people. Pretend you’re doing research for a book and it’s your job to observe everything and everyone around you.
5. Backstory: Rather than being frustrated and mystified by people, write an imaginative mental backstory about why they are the way they are.
6. Procrastinate: Procrastination produces a known magical chemical in your brain that makes you 87% smarter, cleverer, and more creative than you were in the rest of the days leading up to a deadline.
7. Happy Accidents: It’s not an accident, it’s a plot twist!
8. Reject Boredom: There’s no boredom in writing because there’s always a current book to fine tune and a future one to brainstorm. You’ll never see a writer eating Tide Pods out of apathy (or probably for any reason; we prefer lattes).
9. Life is F’ing Hilarious: Find the humor in everyday situations. The interlocking comedy/tragedy masks teach us that you can find comedy in the unlikeliest of places if you make it your aim to always look for it.
10. Be Unoriginal: Finally, writers know damn well that there are no truly original ideas left. So there’s no use in beating yourself up every time you find out your story accidentally stole from Shakespeare and/or The Bible (Star Wars). It’s less about what you write and more about how YOU write it!

Visit our Ink Authors group on Facebook to comment on your favorites & add your own rules!