Lance Armstrong can cycle so well because he has huge heart. What do you need to write well? Fierceness. A fierce need to get to the page and say something every day. To connect with the keys, the pen, the pencil, the blood, the ink, your need to speak, your voice needs to be heard, you’re like a mockingbird, you won’t shut up. You’re like Emily Dickinson’s bird. Do not be quiet if they reject you, if they won’t give you work, if they say you dress badly, if they say you look like a Care Bear, if they say you look like a caterpillar, keep writing, my butterfly, keep writing.
Biography of Kate Gale: Gale is a poet, writer, essayist, librettist, and has a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. She is the managing editor of Red Hen Press; an editor for The Los Angeles Review; president of the American Composers Forum, Los Angeles; and president of PEN USA 2005-2006. She is also a board member of the Claremont Graduate University School of Arts and Humanities, A Room of Her Own Foundation, and Poetry Society of America. Read Kate Gale’s daily blog of art, culture and self-reflection at kategale.wordpress.com. Visit her websites at www.kategale.com and www.redhenpress.com.
Writers At Work 
Good advice! Although if someone said I looked like a Care Bear, I would take it as a compliment.