William Brohaugh

Carefully select the seedlings of your poetry, fiction, nonfiction, scripts and, yes, advertising and business writing; picture the final product and ask yourself if you should spend time setting it to paper.

In terms of real value—and writing must deliver real value, whether informational, inspirational, emotional or otherwise—one wastes most of the time spent reading it; the other, all of the time spent reading it.

Valuable writing gives readers as many of the following elements as possible:

• Information. But not just scattered facts—ideally, you will supply information that readers will use, from step-by-step how-to to the latest scientific discoveries to some casual friend-to-friend advice.

• Entertainment. From the so-called pure escapism of popular fiction to laugh-aloud humor to tear-jerking human interest stories.

• Understanding about the world and how it affects them. Analysis, trend projections, what that new federal law really means.