I think my biggest piece of advice would be to just sit down and write. Seriously. Because I *know* how hard it is to do that, and yet, it really doesn't have to be. No one but you is ever going to see what you write as you write it, and it's okay if it's not perfect the first time through. You can always fix what you don't like later. Once it's down on paper (or computer, as the case may be) then you can improve the parts that you aren't happy with, but it's actually easier to do that when you have a large chunk of it written. And once you have something written, you can ask someone to look it over for you (this is, to me, one of the greatest things about LJ -- it is SO much easier to find betas than it used to be! I never had my work beta'd for years and years because I didn't really know anyone to ask).

But the big thing is just to write. The gorgeous thing about writing is that you really can't mess it up. It isn't performance art; anything you don't like can be fixed. :-)

Crap. That's what I was afraid you were going to say.

*laughs* Well, that's really first, foremost and always what it's about. Of course, I realize that it's not terribly helpful. How do you get ready for a marathon? Run. How do you lose weight? Eat less. But there's a world of difference between *knowing* that and actually doing it.

If actually sitting down to write is a problem, I can tell you a few things that help me.

Something that I will often do is to assign myself a daily goal. I once wrote a novel (a very bad novel, but we won't go there) by telling myself to write a page a day for a year. A page is very small; of course this was back in the days of writing in longhand in notebooks, so it was literally a page, but on the computer it's about 300 words or so. Before breakfast, after dinner, on your lunch break, whenever you can find a few spare minutes -- work on your daily goal. I've learned over time that it's better to set a small goal that's easy to meet and adds up slowly, rather than a large goal that is hard to meet. Better to tell yourself to write 100 words a day, and always achieve it, than to try to write 1000 and never achieve it. Of course, you can always surpass your goal in a day. But it gives you a place to *stop*, to put it aside and say to yourself, "I'm not thinking about this any more today." The hardest thing about writing a long-ish story is that there's nowhere to stop except the end, so you can't get away from the damn thing. Having goals gives you defined start- and end-points.

I like to listen to music while I write, but to remove other distractions -- turning off the TV, for example, and having my husband and pets somewhere else. This is an ideal state that can't always be achieved. ;-) Still, you might see if you can find what works for you. If you're always getting distracted by the Internet when you're trying to write (and notice what *I'm* doing right now...), then maybe unplugging your network cable while you're writing would help.

Another thing that actually does help me is to have a cup of tea while I'm writing. Like with the daily goals thing, it seems to help me focus. I'll sit and write while I'm drinking this cup of tea and I *won't get up*. On the other hand, eventually the tea runs out and I have to go get more, so then it helps get me away from the computer for a few minutes.

I'm glad science is finding out that tea is good for you, because I drink a lot of it ...

Anyway, I hope that a little of this will help you!