Steinbeck's six rules of writing

Steinbeck's six rules, in his own words (h/t: Chris Harper): 

1. Focus on one page at a time.
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day; it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

2. Write first. Edit later.
Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

3. Write for one person, not a crowd.
Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theatre, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

4. Don't get stuck on one section.
If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.

5. Don't fall in love with your own writing.
Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

6. Read your dialogue aloud.
If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.