10 writing tips from Heather O'Neill

1. It takes about ten years to get good. Not ten minutes a day either. Ten years of writing incessantly and religiously. There's no way around this. 
2. You have to have talent though. You have to have an enormous gift. You have to have an ear for language.
3. You should have been a huge reader as a child. You should have read everything you could put your hands on. This way literature is your mother tongue.
4. Don't make excuses for not writing. We all have hard lives filled with conflict and betrayal. You are only writing when words are being put on the page. 
5. Often writers love writing more than anything else. Once you start, you might find it difficult to do much else. Writing WILL drive you mad. You can learn to live in the world as a mad person though.
6. Show your writing to other people. If you hide it, it will never ever get better. Get feedback. (NOT your girlfriend or boyfriend though. That's just like asking them if your ass looks fat.)  
7. Don't drink. It numbs your faculties.
8. Have something to say. Have something EXCITING to say! 
9. Love your characters. They will love you back. 
10. Don't spend all your time with other writers, talking about writing. Live a real life. Be good to your family. Be really good to your family.