Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn’t be there. - William Zinsser

Yet many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better. This can often happen in a writing class. Inexperienced students are chilled to find themselves in the same class with students whose byline has appeared in the college newspaper. But writing for the college paper is no great credential; I’ve often found that the hares who write for the paper are overtaken by the tortoises who move studiously toward the goal of mastering the craft.

Never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation.

There are many good reasons for writing that have nothing to do with being published. Writing is a powerful search mechanism, and one of its satisfactions is to come to terms with your life narrative. Another is to work through some of life's hardest knocks — loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure — and to find understanding and solace.