Express Yourself: Writing Advice

The Express Yourself Weekly Meme is hosted by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

The question for this week is: What is some advice you've received on writing that you'd like to share?

One critical piece of advice I've heard many times is that you should write every day.  If you aren't feeling inspired, you need to write something, even if it's only a few words.  Those few words might trigger a spark of something special.  Or perhaps they will serve as inspiration later on when you least expect it.

I also love the following quote, and I keep it in mind whenever I'm struggling with a piece of writing.

"The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can."
-Neil Gaiman

Not only does this serve as inspiration, it happens to be remarkably true.  We are each unique, so that which we bring to our writing is bound to be equally unique.  We may occasionally feel insecure about our writing and how it differs from the writings of authors we admire, but we can't let that insecurity get us down.  We need to embrace that uniqueness rather than fear it.  

And lastly, here's something that I would recommend for any writer.  I have plenty of half-finished stories, notes about ideas that have never come to fruition, little stand-alone scenes, and deleted scenes from completed stories.  I never throw any of these away.  I keep them, because you never know when they might be handy.  When you are struggling to find inspiration, going through this treasure trove of writing odds and ends might light the flame of creativity.

What writing advice would you like to share?