In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of www.cynthialeitichsmith.com, I asked some established authors–folks I’d featured early on–the following question:

Over the past decade, what are the most important lessons you’ve learned about your craft, the writing/artistic life, and/or publishing, and why?

YA author Ellen Wittlinger said:

What I’ve learned about writing in the last decade is to give all the ideas and all the energy I have to each book as it comes along.

I’m not going to run out of ideas; the well isn’t going to go dry.

What I’ve learned about the writing life is that there aren’t any weekends.

Yes, your time is your own, you can work in your pajamas, in the middle of the night if you want, etc., but the work is always with you.

What I’ve learned about publishing is that it will always worship the next new thing. You have to try not to let it make you crazy.

Read a Cynsations interview with Ellen.