You learn to write by writing. Although writing is an art, there are skills, tools, and techniques that can be learned in order to develop talent. Constructive criticism and feedback can help this process. Becoming a skilled typist is extremely useful to a writer. Revision is important. A writer can always do one more revision. At some point the writer has to stop revising and get the work published.
To be a good writer you need to read a lot, listen and observe everything about you carefully, and write a lot. Writing a lot takes discipline, because writing can actually be hard work- but very satisfying. Setting up a routine for writing is important; it is very easy to find something else to do besides writing. A compulsion to write is very useful.

Fiction writers should have a good grasp of the language, but most of all they must be storytellers. A really good story can compensate for less-than-brilliant writing, but brilliant writing will not save a bad story.

Success breeds success. The more published you are, the easier it is to get published again.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The beginning of a story must be interesting. Readers can be lost on page one.

Scorning the work of a writer does not make that writer a better writer.

For fiction writers, here are the major components of stories.

1.   Plot is the organization of events that will take place in the story.

2.   Characters are the people or animals who will be in the story.

3.   Setting is the physical time and place in which the story takes place.

4.   Dialogue is the spoken words of the characters in the story.

5.   Point of view is the relative identification of the narrator with the characters.

6.   Theme is the main idea or meaning behind a story.

7.   Style is the writer's use of the language.