Mark Derbyshire

@R3D_W0LF Thank you! I certainly want to sort it out for publishing. It is self published, but slowed down immensely, so I decided to chuck it on here and do some editing before seeing about a publishing deal.
            
            I'm hoping to finish the second book after Easter (when I have some free time and all my expenses are in order), so glad you're enjoying it :)

@thomasawyer Thanks! I did see your comments, and appreciate you writing them. Glad you're enjoying it :)

@LinkTheGreat117 Games and television series can help too, but maybe try not to overdo them. They provide some insight into storytelling and can be good inspiration.

@LinkTheGreat117 Well, I'm always glad to help when someone asks:) And thanks for the vote of confidence in my work. I may ramble slightly, but on the whole I'll be concise.
            
            Quite honestly, my experiences tell me that there are two major things you can do to help your writing. I'm not claiming they're the only two major ways to improve your literary art, but these are the two that not only taught me how to write, but gave me a decent dose of passion for writing.
            
            The first thing is common advice, and it's to read. You'll often hear to read as much variety and content as you can, but I say you can stick to the stuff you enjoy and want to write. I was lucky to enjoy Terry Pratchett's work, so I had in excess of thirty books or so to read when I started, and now there are over fifty.
            
            The second thing is to write every day, or as close to every day as possible. If you just sit down for half an hour and get five hundred words out every day, you'd have a novel in four months. Not feeling up to a novel yet? Write some short stories, or essays, or a review. Write a poem, write lyrics, write articles, write whatever you please, just write what you want to.
            
            Follow those and you will see your writing start to improve. Other than that, here's a couple of little hints that I find help me, in no particular order:
            
            Have a book nearby that you can consult for punctuation in dialogue, or commas or anything really.
            
            Write without worrying about errors. You can go back and fix them later, but fixing them while writing slows you down and mucks up your rhythm.
            
            Unsure of a word you're using? Consult the great interwebs of power! The internet has helped me immensely, but practice caution. Use willpower to finish your half hour or hour of writing and not get lost online.
            
            IMPORTANT! Write what you enjoy! Stories that author's dislike don't get finished. They wither, they embarrass, they hang over your head like a storm cloud, and then they die. They die, LinkTheGreat117, they die.