My (bad) advice to young writers...

I'm about to go on a rambling spree so please forgive me. When I first began to attempt writing books, or short stories, I was never able to get past the first page before moving to another idea. That's why I wrote poems. They were easier to finish. I also have a book full of one page stories that I hope I can go back and finish one day. I truly believe that every Author has an unfinished book from when they first started. Okay, maybe not Stephen King, but he's the odd one out, not us. There will be a day, and that one story that you'll start writing and can't seem to stop because for some reason it will be only thing you will think of, see, and hear as if it's a movie being played in your head. That's what happened when I first wrote Written in the Stars. I woke up thinking about it, and spent all night writing it. If was as if I couldn't get it out of my head fast enough. It wasn't until I read it, that I realized a good portion of the story was me. I was able to personally connect to my main character. My advice (maybe not good advice) would be that your first novel, or short story should come from you and not your imagination. Of course, you want to write it in a fiction setting so people can't put two and two together. Don't write it for anyone but yourself. After you finish it, you'll understand what it meant to write it, and you will have also learned how to discipline yourself to now write a full novel, while taking notes on the other idea's running through your head. And if you ever get stuck (writers block) then it's okay to start on a new book to clear your head, because eventually your story will come back to you. Straying from the current novel that you're writing doesn't mean your not being loyal to it. It just means that you love it enough to do it justice, and clear your head before losing it all together. So taking a break, starting a new book is okay in my eyes. However, when you have agent breathing down your necl for a manuscript, thats when you have no choice but to discpiline yourself to write for someone else, and sadly it's also when the magic of writing is taken from you, if you let it. DON'T LET IT!!!...always write for yourself because if you don't like it, then it doesn't matter who does. I hope I helped a little...oh and I always find that music can get me where I need to be to write whatever book I need to write.