“Every paragraph, every sentence, every word must carry its weight-must do a job.”

That's a snippet from Paul Raymond Martin's The Writer's Little Instruction Book, one I copied in a notebook and later posted on my computer.

As a lifelong writer, I've kept an ever-growing notebook of written and spoken wisdom on wowing-or at least intriguing-readers. It's a connection that starts by impressing an editor and earning publication.

The insights might come from a TV or radio interview with an author. Or a magazine or newspaper feature on or by a writer. Or an informational piece on the Internet.

Sometimes, in my next stint at the keyboard and if the project warrants it, I'll incorporate one of the concepts.

So, here's a sampling of the pearls of wisdom highlighted in my notebook over the years:

Don't be impatient. Writing takes a long time and is a LIFETIME COMMITMENT. If that's your inclination, keep at it. FOUR of our deepest desires are to think well of ourselves; to have others think well of us; to have things to look forward to; and to be constantly challenged. Writing delivers all FOUR.

Good writers see the world as their journalism laboratory, a storehouse of article/story ideas. They have an eye for the offbeat and they're voracious collectors of information, which means that they take notes like crazy.

They immerse themselves in the story/article. They live it, breathe it, dream it. They plan and rehearse the story passionately, writing it in their minds, considering their options, always looking for new directions and fresh information. “Seize the subject,” a Roman statesman once said, “and the words will follow.”

They love to tell stories. They are constantly searching for the human element, for voices that enliven the writing.

Figure out the obvious way to write an article/story. Then don't write it that way. In other words, when others zig, that's often a good time to zag.

Art requires an instinctive knowledge of what to include and what to leave out. (Luckily, you get better as your experience grows.)

Good writers understand that an important part of the writing process is the mechanical drudgery of organizing the material. They respond to this by developing careful filing systems and plotting out the basic course of their material early in the process.

They regularly rewrite. They love computers because they permit maximum playfulness during revision. They can move paragraphs around, invert word order for emphasis, find stronger verbs and occasionally purge the entire story to achieve a fresh start. As you've heard several times in Midnight Musings, good writers tend to be Bleeders, not Speeders. Hemingway put it nicely when he said, “Easy writing makes for hard reading.”

To amplify Paul Raymond Martin's advice, cut out every unnecessary word, phrase, sentence and paragraph. Except for the first few takes of Genesis, every story ever written would be better if it was 10% shorter. Remember, too, that personal is better than impersonal; simple forms are best (limit the use of words bearing prefixes and suffixes), and short is better than long. Another tip: Listen to what your ears tell you. They're a great ally to the eyes. (Read your work aloud.)

Good writers take chances in the writing. They love the surprising and the unconventional approach. They prefer failing in print from time to time because those failures represent the price of inventiveness.

Remember, too, that good writing, like music, has rhythm. Vary your sentence lengths and structures. Short, punchy anecdotes, strong quotes and, where appropriate, a touch of humor help keep the reader reading. An old-time city editor once wrote: “Writers must learn to avoid adjectives and to swear by the little verbs that bounce and leap and swim and swoop.”

Yes, it's true. The standards of skilled writers grow higher and higher so that early drafts seem painfully weak and incomplete. But that adds to their impetus in tackling subsequent drafts.

Fiction has its origins in personal experience. It may be necessary, however, to modify that experience to make it usable. Also, fiction must grow toward universality-an I've-experienced-that-too-feeling-even though the piece is based in personal experience.

All writers, even the most successful, need editors to provide objectivity and another viewpoint.

Stories/articles are never really finished until they are published.

All good writing is in some sense experimental, which makes writers creative people and their profession constantly challenging.