The biggest thing I would say to my younger self were to have a time machine and go backward is: You have to have absolute humility about what you’re doing. You have to somehow know that you are capable of enormous idiocies and mistakes and yet not lose your self-confidence in what you’re doing. It’s a difficult line to walk because I know that writer’s block comes almost always from self-doubt. At the same time you have to know that this is a life-long learning process and you’re going to find yourself every 10 years looking back on what you wrote 10 years ago and feeling appalled by it. And that’s good; it means you’re learning and growing.

Dean Koontz, and other writers, on how to write your first book – a fine addition to famous writers’ advice on writing.  (via explore-blog)