Piano virtuoso Paderewski once said, "If I don't practice one day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my friends know. If I don't practice for three days, the whole world knows it." So, the writer's maxim comes into play as I stare at the computer screen: to be the best, practice writing every day.

At times, this is hard, but I find (at least with my present job) writing every day is going to happen no matter what. The true answer to writer's block is to just write. Who cares if the flow isn't the same or your narrator's voice seems odd? In the end, your writing won't suffer if you practice.

Sometimes I find myself writing one sentence. On other days, I can get a paragraph out before I get sidetracked or feel like I'm not going anywhere. Then there are the days we all want: a writing session that's greater than 5000 words and flows from your fingers with ease.

Just remember, if you write one page per day, you'll write a novel in a year. If you write two pages per day, you'll write two novels in a year. If you write none, you won't have a novel to pitch to agents.

Benjamin X. Wretlind