Milton Trachtenburg said -- and I agree: "Don't listen to people who tell you that writing is simply putting words in a document and that you learn by repeating the same mistakes over and over. If you want to be a successful writer, study the rules that made the successful people successful. Read books about the skills writers need. Read books that have been called "classics" in the genre you plan to write in. Try to figure out why they are successful and thousands of others aren't. Don't ask others to give you ideas. Ask them instead to critique YOUR ideas. There is enough misinformation spread in this group to fill a library. At the same time, there are writers who have a track record of success who understand how they got there.

"Learn grammar, spelling and punctuation because if you submit a manuscript full of errors, it will be rejected before it gets to page 2. If you think you can write dreck and an editor will rewrite it into a masterpiece, you will learn that no reputable editor will accept a manuscript that is that flawed. There are people out there who will charge you thousands of dollars and return to you something that is not much better than what you gave them.

"Join a REAL writing group in your community. Pick one where there are people ahead of you in their skill level because they will give you the best advice. Learn how to critique the writing of others, not just saying you like it. WHAT is powerful? What didn't work?

"Learn words as choices --- always look at synonyms to see if they are better choices. Look at words as expensive. Use as few of them as possible to describe what you are trying to say.

"This is about one hundredth of one percent of what you need to know in order to write for publication."