New writers often get all knotted up and uncertain. They don't want to write anything for fear of writing the wrong thing. To this, I say, "Ha! That is the joy of writing!" To be a writer, you must love writing. The act of it. Your pencil and paper. Even the writing callous you get on your finger. Or the sounds from your keyboard as you type. And the sound of your delete button as it removes all the unnecessary words.
New writers often think they should be able to take a clean piece of paper, start a story, keep writing, and finish. Nothing to it. They are surprised at how hard it is. They are further surprised that the first story they write is not something a publisher is interested in printing. This should not be a surprise. A concert pianist did not play Beethoven on their first lesson. A photographer does not create prize-winning photography on every frame. Just because you can write and just because you know how to make a sentence, does not mean you can tell a good story.
Writing requires putting down many words, sentences, paragraphs and pages that are later discarded. It requires practicing the art of "wordsmithing." And, if one is attempting to get published, it requires learning the industry, the genre, and the marketplace.
But first, before anything else, writers must be readers. Second and third, writers must continue to read. Not just for enjoyment, but as a lesson about what works and what doesn't. And about which publishers like what kinds of stories.
If you are writing to get published. If there is a mantra in your head as you write, a mantra that says, "Oh boy! I hope they like this, I hope I get a contract," then you are not writing well. A good writer is connected to each word, its sound, its importance, and its congeniality with the words that came before it. A good writer likes lining up words, praising some, and dismissing others. And while a good writer has times when the writing seems difficult and unfriendly, he or she faces these times as a challenge. A good writer likes writing. The publishing comes second. After all, you might not ever get published, and then what do you have? If you're a good writer, you'll have had a wonderful journey through all of those words.