Some insightful advice from Canadian author Pierre Berton:
"In order to write effectively it is necessary to hear the rhythm of your own words. In my later drafts I listen for it after each sentence, and before the next I listen to both together. I then write the next sentence and listen to it in concert with the previous two. Thus the work proceeds smoothly, like a sonata, and the sentences don't go bump-bump-bump, like a car on a rocky road."
"There is no easy way to write a book... (letter to a writer)
Dear Mrs. P. I'm afraid I have to be fairly blunt with you. If your work is not selling, it is clearly because nobody wants to buy it. If nobody wants to buy it, it is quite clear there is something wrong with it from a professional point of view. Wanting to write isn't enough; you've got to know how. It is a long, hard apprenticeship and there is no room in it for amateurs."
~ Pierre Berton, Canadian author (1920 - 2004) The Joy of Writing, Random House of Canada, 2003