1) The first draft is not the last - you can make it better
Annie Murray
2) You can fall asleep at your desk and it still counts as work. (It is. Your unconscious is still hard at it. Honest.)
3) You may know a shedload of detail about your imaginative world - the skill is choosing which detail to include to summon it up.
4) You don't have to be unhappy/drunk/male/American to be a writer. No one owns writing. Preferably you need to learn to be yourself.
5) It's important to preserve the spaces necessary in your head and your life for your imagination without becoming a monster - in the end no one else really cares whether you write it or not…
6) You are very fortunate as a writer that under the pressure or tedium of life you have somewhere to go in your head that isn't going to get you arrested (usually).
7) Be patient. Writing is like growing something. A lot happens under the soil. You need to learn to work with your own mind which is not quite like anyone else's. (See #2 - sleep helps. And walking.)
8) Being a writer illuminates every aspect of life and gives it meaning, and is a lot less bossy than old-school religion
9) You don't have to be the best writer ever (impossible anyway - who decides?) - you just have to give it your best.
10) Your work arises out of solitariness, which is precious - but it is also very rewarding to work with other creative people.
War Babies by Annie Murray is published 9th April by Pan Macmillan, price £6.99 in paperback