Readers make the best writers…. I think almost every professional writer I know, heard, and read has repeated this.
People who read understand voice because they’ve heard a number of different writers use it.
Readers internalize pacing. The pacing of a story or poem is of the utmost importance.
People who read know more vocabulary. The thesaurus helps, but there’s nothing like knowing the perfect word in the necessary place.
Readers are not affected by others’ style but can recognize a need for individual style.
It’s important to read extensively in your own genre. In academia, we refer to it by “adding our voice to the conversation.” One must know what is being done in order to respond, in any number of ways, to it.
People who read are aware of the benefits that serve their writing.
There’s a theory that we don’t fear failure, we fear success.
Many people are confused by semicolons; some people just hate them.
However, some of my editors have asked me to cut them down. One editor-friend said, “they do not appear in popular fiction.”
comma needs to be.
Does your character like her/his marshmallows burned and why?
I’m a big fan of Malcom Gladwell, writer for the New Yorker and author of The Turning Point, Outliers, and many others.
It depends on the person. With me, it takes 3 to 4 weeks for me to stick to my commitment. And every year my teaching schedule changes, so there’s two to three months a year for me to recommit.
Writing a novel is not a destination; it’s a journey. It’s the hardest journey you will take with unclear signs, narrow paths, tricky u-turns, treacherous cliffs, an occasional dead end, and a steep road toward the end.
Noreen Lace 
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