Bottom line: don’t write if you can help it, and don’t write expecting to make money.  The only really good reason to write is because you have to.  To those who physically must write, I urge you to write daily, at the same time of day, producing the same amount of words.  Read continually, look outward rather than inward, and do all you can to convey your own passions directly and honestly and completely to strangers.

—Michael Ruhlman on food writing. Of course, good advice for any writing.