Five things a writer should and shouldn't do

I came across a blog post on author Tonya Kappes's blog titled "FIVE Things a Writer Should and Shouldn't Do NOW!" that I wanted to share. You should go read the blog post, but to summarize, here are the 5 things.

Things a writer shouldn't do:

1. Stop quitting
2. Stop treating your body bad
3. Stop writing what you hear is going to sell
4. Stop dreaming and start doing
5. Stop worrying

Things a writer should do:

1. Recognize that you are a writer
2. Read more
3. Give back to others
4. Work hard
5. Just do it

I think it's a good list, and one can certainly add more to each category.

From the "shouldn't do" list, I'm pretty good about not doing all of those things except for the worrying. I can't help it. I'm a natural worrier. I worry about everything. I won't stop worrying even if I sell a million books.

As for the things you should do, I didn't score as high. The only item on that list that I think I do well is reading more. On average, I read five to seven books a month, which I consider pretty good for someone who works full time, has a family, and also writes. Clearly, based on the list, I still have room to improve, but I feel like I'm still in the first or second inning of my writing career. It'd be interesting to look back on this list in five years and see how well my future self is doing.