I highly recommend this article from the Guardian (thanks to Stace Budzko for the link) in which well-known authors give their top ten rules for writing. There are some corkers in here: words of wisdom, inspirations, rules to either adopt or snort at depending on your views. It's an absolute treasure trove. Here are a view I love:
"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." Elmore Leonard
"Do back exercises. Pain is distracting." Margaret Atwood
"Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, e.g. 'horse', 'ran', 'said'." Roddy Doyle
"Don't worry about posterity -- as Larkin (no sentimentalist) observed 'What will survive of us is love.'" Helen Dunmore
"Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire." Geoff Dyer
"Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong." Neil Gaiman
And seriously, that's just a smattering of the rich, insightful (and sometimes downright hilarious) quotations from this article.
Enjoy them, but remember, you don't have to keep all of them. We writers know rules are for breaking.
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