The 10-year rule and deliberate practice. (Can you say "a million bad words"?) An interesting article on greatness that fell out of one of my mailing lists today.

I will say that pretty much any pro writer I've ever talked to about this aspect of craft has been able to tell me what they're trying to improve, right now. Some can tell me what they'll be working on next, and even two or three steps after that. That's deliberate practice. Writing consistently, be that daily or weekly -- the productivity meme I'm always hitting on -- is deliberate practice, not to mention the only way to power through the 10-year rule.

Ghu, I love my muse, but writing is a lot of hard work both before and after it's inspiration.