Beginner's Mind. Be curious about everything.

My sixth grade teacher told me I plagiarized the short story I wrote about sailing. I used to sail with my father on my uncle's boat on Sunday in the summer. I knew all the nautical terms. My father spoke up for me - but still the teacher failed me for stealing the work. A work he could not nae where I stole it from. This was my diploma to become a writer. For years I was an abysmal writer.

Ursula K. Le Guinn's book is especially good for fiction writers - Steering The Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story. Essays by Wendell Berry are well ordered and very well written.