If you’re watching TV, grocery shopping more than once a week, or going to the mall when there’s no specific item you need to buy, you have time to write. There are a lot of other places in a day to “steal” time, but those are the most common ones I see.

#9: Most prologues are useful for the writer but not the reader.

Nearly all my novels start out having a prologue which I later cut once I’ve got my mind firmly in the world I’m writing about.

Write the prologue, use it, then kill it. Recycle it into a short story, if you can, or use it on your blog or author website to create buzz and give your readers a little “extra.”