First, understand voice and structure. Writing well requires the study of your own most personal way of expression. Do not give in to the temptation to write like any successful author. Also, writing well requires the study of language and its construction, from sentence to paragraph to page. Use strong verbs, be selective with imagery and details, never forget that concision is precision. Pace trumps beauty and emotion, but have plenty of all three. Inspiration and talent can only carry you so far; effort and ability will do the rest. Also, be a voracious reader, and read only the best, not necessarily in your chosen genre.

Second, write boldly. Writing is like skiing - you will fall when you hesitate. Also, keep in mind that no one will be interested in anything you say if you cannot say it with verve, personality, and some skew. On this point, resist that old adage about writing what you know. To hell with that. Go learn something new, and come back to tell us about it. You'll find this a much more interesting and energizing platform than your own experiences or expertise. Use your life as a springboard, nothing more. You'll always write better from your soul and heart than from your memory.

Third, keep in mind that imagination is limitless. Do not, therefore, reduce your story to outlines and sketches, notes and 3x5 cards. You will make your story finite this way and it will suffer because it cannot grow beyond your outline. Juggle your story: by this, I mean keep eight balls in the air and only two in your hands. Let the story - the eight balls - float free, dangerously so. That's the beauty of watching a juggler: where will those balls fall? Chase your story, believe in your characters and follow them. Do not predetermine every step they take but record what they do, and do the recording breathlessly but with control, as if you just came inside to report an accident or a marvel you have just witnessed.

Fourth, wrestle to the ground the notion that editing is writing. When someone you trust - or you yourself - advises you to make some changes, and those changes make your story better, get on it with the same will and power with which you wrote the original lines.

Fifth, never write when you are tired, hungry, distracted, angry. Write only when you are at your best, when you are rested and fed, when it is quiet and you are focused, because the words you put down will be the reflection of everything you carry behind them. Make that reflection on still water, not ruffled.

Sixth, do not throw in the kitchen sink. Let some stuff that you think is interesting drop away. (see above: pace trumps everything). Do not write to impress your reader. Write to elevate, educate, and entertain. Let your reader think your story is smart or sensitive or brave, and forget making them think you are. This is a major earmark of an inexperienced writer.

Seventh, there is plenty to go around. In workshops or writers' groups, do not be jealous or harsh. One person's talent or good luck does nothing to diminish yours. Rejoice for your fellows who get a break or who write a wonderful piece. Give your best and gentle efforts to help a fellow writer learn, improve, and keep writing. If someone does well, or even gets published, they prove something important: that it can be done. This is the beauty of art: it is not a zero sum game. Be worthy of the work, and of your desire to write it. You can always be next.

Eighth, and most importantly, learn to accept the word No. Understand that No does not mean stop, it means only Not this direction. When an editor or agent says No, they are simply telling you to go another way, you cannot go through me. But there are other ways. No one must have the power to make you stop writing, learning, experimenting, or hoping.

© 2006 David L. Robbins

David L. Robbins was born in Richmond, Virginia, on March 10, 1954. He grew up in Sandston, a small town east of Richmond out by the airport, for his father was among the first to sit behind the new radar scope in the air traffic control tower. Both his parents, Sam and Carol, were veterans of WWII. Sam saw action in the Pacific, especially at Pearl Harbor.

In 1976, David graduated from the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a B.A. in Theater and Speech. He didn’t know what to do for a living, having little real theatrical talents, so he decided to attend what he call the “great catch-basin of unfocused over-achievers,” law school. He received his Juris Doctorate at William and Mary in 1980. Robbins practiced environmental law in Columbia, S.C. for a year to the day (his father demanded back the money for law school if David practiced for less than one year – he quit two weeks before the anniversary but got Sam to agree that two weeks vacation he’d accumulated could be included) before turning his energy to a career as a freelance writer in 1981. He began writing fiction in 1990.

Robbins has published five novels: Souls To Keep, a cosmic love story (published by HarperCollins in 1998); War Of The Rats, set during the battle of Stalingrad (published by Bantam in 1999); The End of War, about the fall of Berlin at the end of WWII (Bantam in 2000); Scorched Earth, placed in the American South, about a church burning and contemporary racism (Bantam, 2002); Last Citadel, about the great tank battle of Kursk on the Eastern Front of WWII (Bantam in 2003), and Liberation Road, a tale of the battle for France in WWII told through the perspectives of two minorities in the U.S. Army, a black truck driver and a rabbi chaplain. His next novel, The Assassins Gallery, to be published in July of 2006, is an alternate history political thriller supposing the assassination of FDR. The novel has been tabbed Bantam’s lead book for summer. He is currently at work on something he swore he would never write, a sequel.

The audio version of War Of The Rats was nominated for an Audie, as one of the top three unabridged novels of 2000. His books have appeared on the NY Times Bestseller lists several times.

Robbins is an accomplished guitarist, playing blues for years, but now he studies Latin classical. At six feet six inches tall, he stays active with his sailboat, shooting sporting clays, weightlifting, traveling to research his novels, and as founder and board member of the James River Writers, a non-profit group in his hometown of Richmond that helps aspiring writers and students work and learn together as a writing community. He resides in Richmond.