Let me start by paraphrasing Stephen King’s advice in his book On Writing: If you want to be a writer, you must write! I’ll add one more caveat to that profound statement: If you want to be a good writer, you must read! With those two critical concepts in mind, I’ll offer my personal advice for aspiring writers in the form of a checklist: 1. Read voraciously. Normally as an author, you already have a genre of preference and at least a rudimentary idea of your target audience. If you’re not already doing so, start reading books that appeal that audience within that genre. Obviously, your intent isn’t to steal…