The above is the most important advice you’ll ever receive.
Make reading and writing a habit.
Wonderful thread!
Right now, I am writing for fun…not published yet, but I hope to be. I love to write, it is my passion. My best friend and I are currently working on co-writing 2 novels, and we have a ‘loop’ of readers we send each chapter out to.
The way I name characters… I generally start with a first name I like, that fits with the general time and place, then just rey on last names till I find one that sounds good with it. For some reason, I like typically male/unisex names for my femal leads; in the 2 novels I have in the works right now, I have Jamie and Cori (Corrine).
I will be following this thread with great interest!
Read everything. When I get stuck, when I get writer’s block, I read. You never know when a you’ll see a technique another writer is using that’ll help you bust through your writer’s block. Read a variety, yes, but if you find a writer whose style you really appreciate, read all their work. Read, read, read.
Awesome post, Vern, thank you for sharing all that! I’m a hobby writer; I write fan-faction based on my World of Warcraft characters. For years I thought I didn’t like creative writing. It turns out what I don’t like is dreaming up an interesting setting to work in. When I gave it a try with a defined universe like Azeroth it came very naturally and was a lot of fun.
While I can’t claim thousands of readers, a few dozen people have read my stories and consider me one of the better writers on my realm. I still get a kick out of having an audience of any size, really. That is indeed what it’s all about.
Oh! Character names! I’m terrible at coming up with them on my own, so I cheat. I found a list of cities and counties in my home state of Georgia. The two characters I write about the most are named Ambrose Colquitt and Lauren Montrose. I’m fairly certain I’ve never been to any of those four places 
I apologise, sweet creative dopers, for forgetting about this thread! Here I am back and ready to…
Well now I’ve forgotten what I was going to say. Great.
Anyway - is any one else having trouble writing at the moment? I am, and I know why. My standards have blown up like a mongoose(random word)! I’ll write and go, “No, no, no…I am delivering it all wrong. It must be like THIS, not like THAT.” and I’ll spend hours just working on the first page. It is really quite shameful.
My current project stars a gay amputee rapist/murderer, as he looks at how he got to where he is now whilst committing his murders and having a relationship with a sweet, easily-manipulated individual. I know how weird that sounds - but I like it.
I wrote two pages that I find “acceptable” but I haven’t picked up the notebook since. Oy vey.
Maybe I should try sitting upside down on a chair…
~S.P.I.~
I once saw the actual first page of George Orwell’s MS of 1984, which was virtually, solidly ablur with ink. He wrote, and rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote. If you have to as well, don’t be afraid. Stick with it and sooner or later you’ll come up with something that pleases you, or realize it’s time to go in a new direction. Good luck!
Aw, you don’t know how much that helped! Thank you heir of Elendil. 
Check out The 37 Dramatic Situations.
The Master speaks: What are the seven basic literary plots? - The Straight Dope
I’m a writer both professionally and, uh, hobbistically. 
I used to bubble over with stories when I was younger – constantly spewing out words, a veritable volcano of creativity. Now I find I have ridiculous standards that cripple me. For thirteen years I’ve produced an online serial that thousands have enjoyed, but my production has slowed down because of my fear of failure.
You know what’s helped? This site, Write or Die. Set a wordcount goal, set a timer, and write your ass off; if you stop writing before you reach goal, you get a warning … and if you don’t heed it, your words will be erased, one by one! (That’s in “Kamizaze” mode, anyway; if you choose “Normal” mode, you’ll just hear some incredibly annoying music until you start typing again.)
There’s no spellcheck, no editing tools. It’s all online. (You can copy and paste your work afterwards to the text editor of your choice.) Write or Die forces you to produce words without editing or judging each letter as it hits your screen, which is something I’m notorious for. I can’t recommend this highly enough.