The biggest mistake new writers make is focusing on their writing at the expense of living.

Writing is just writing.  If you have nothing to say, writing it down is a waste of time.  Sure, you may be able to put together some clever sentences, but the most people will be able to say is that your work is a triumph of skill over substance.

The best writing - and by this I mean writing that the general public will want to read over and over again, generation upon generation - is based on insight.

Insights into the human condition.  Insights into life.  Insights into the "Big Picture."  That sort of thing.

And the best insights, the most fruitful ones, arise from experience.

From YOUR experience.  From YOUR life.  From the places you've been, the people you've talked to, the sights you've seen, and the emotions you've felt.

Your life is the wellspring of your words.

Note that I said "your life."  Not "your knowledge."

Smarts are less useful to a writer than experiences.

Plenty of great writers weren't brainboxes, but they could write about what they knew from experience in a way that was so immediate, so alive, so compelling, that readers couldn't tear themselves away.

You see, we as human beings gravitate to writing that appeals to our gut.  Writing that rings true to our hearts. Writing that resonates with our personal experience.

That's why romance novels and thrillers will always captivate us in a way that literary fiction never will.

Writing that appeals to our brains - which, sadly, is the curse of writing done in universities - is only satisfactory in a removed sort of way. We don't get engaged with it.  Our hearts aren't in it.  We find it compelling intellectually but pick up the worst sort of literary trash for pleasure.

Again, good writing doesn't necessarily demand great skill.  What it does demand is an understanding of what human beings feel, want, and need ... an understanding that can only come through the process of living a multi-dimensional life.

So if you think you can become a "great writer" by studying your pants off, you're looking in the wrong place.

Students and teachers, you're welcome to protest.  But I stand my ground.

There's nothing wrong with reading lots of great books.  But those books contain other people's insights. They're not yours.

When you write about the ideas you read in books, you're only parroting what other people have already said - and probably better than you.

There's already too much writing out there that repeats the same old truths in the same old way.

As a writer, your goal is to be original.  To say things in ways that no one's ever said before.

The richest source for originality - for your "personal truth," if you will - is your life.

Those memories that haunt you.  Those times when your heart was broken.  Those embarrassing moments that broke your self-esteem.

Those times your heart stood still from beauty.  Those times when you found unexpected resources inside yourself.  Those times when you glimpsed a truth about life that made everything suddenly make sense.

Those are the things that inspire the richest writing.

Because they come from the heart or the soul, not the head.

So if you want to be a Great Writer, your best bet is to throw yourself whole-heartedly into living a Memorable Life.

Don't waste time developing the kind of show-off skill that characterizes academic writing.

Instead, consume experiences voraciously. Mull them over and over until they transmute into pearls of insights.

Write down everything, without regard to its "quality" or not.

Make writing an act as instinctive as breathing.

Don't worry about whether or not you're doing it "right," or doing it with enough skill.

If you must worry about something, worry about letting experiences pass you by without capturing them in word sketches.

If an opportunity comes up to do something that challenges you or scares you, take it.  Those experiences are the ones that will enrich your writing for years to come.

And try not to write from the head.  Tap into your heart.  In particular, tap into those experiences that seared your heart, that burned indelible image of pain or beauty.

If you do these things, people will want to read your writing.  They'll resonate with it.  They'll feel the truth of it.

That's greatness.