1 - When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
2 - When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
3 - Don't romanticise your "vocation". You can either write good sentences or you can't. There is no "writer's lifestyle". All that matters is what you leave on the page.
4 - Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can't do aren't worth doing. Don't mask self-doubt with contempt.
5 - Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
6 - Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.
7 - Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.
8 - Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
9 - Don't confuse honours with achievement.
10 - Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.
See it officially here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/22/zadie-smith-rules-for-writers
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