One of the most important things as a writing instructor is to provide a lot of different entry points to subjects. To not impose your own personal experience as the One True Way.

Trust your imagination. Don't be afraid to fail. Write. Revise. Revise. Revise.

Position yourself to succeed by doing the other things in your life that rejuvenate you. You can create little islands of time away from your novel that will help preserve your balance. Exhaustion will affect both your writing’s quality and your productivity.

The music I listen to while writing is really scene-specific. It's just a great motivator, a way to put myself in the mood.