I think in order to create a story worth your readers time you have to see both sides of the picture. Sure you know your protanginist is a hero and he/she does things that hero's do. However your antagonist is important too! I myself have screwed up so many stories by focusing on my hero and making my bad guy nothing more than a shadow. Now sure my hero has lots of development, but he/she fights this bad guy that barely exists! That makes for a really bad story!

Remember those innocent days as a child containing invisible friends, and extreme situations on the playground which made your life a little more worthwhile? You all know what I am talking about! That good ole imangination! Now why would I stick in something about imagination in a list of writing essentials? I dunno 'cause maybe yah need one? You would be wasting your readers time if you wrote a story that has no imagination in it! Imagination is the backbone of the whole process of writing, the place where it all starts! Without it, any writer is lost!

Okay imagination is good, in fact if you have a story without it it is a waste of your time, however no matter how many things you can imagine it will pointless if the didn't make some sense or seemed believeable. That is why I love Sci-Fi, because all the authors make their stories beliveable. If you don't believe your story or believe it could happen someday you have no buisness writing it. At least have faith in your work. Okay? Okay!

Now how can you be a writer if you have to force yourself to sit at your computer to push out meaningless words. Christ have fun your story! My friend Amanda and I like to gather early in the morning and act out my 'masterpiece'.  'manda makes me laugh so damn hard I can actually admit I have snorted in her presence.

Okay here I am working on my site in the darkness of my basement because the only computer in the house is down here. Don't ask me why because I really don't know.

Anyway the point I am attempting to make is that your work space should have color! Not just cement walls and insulation! Hang a few pictures up, add little trinkets of yours that personalize your space! Note the emphasise on YOUR space.

Okay you have characters, you have a general plot. But how are you going to make your story work if you don't have some understanding of what you are writing?

Say if you are writing a story about a french man in the 1800's you can't write it from a 21 century point of view. Unless you were writing a really dull history book that teachers use to tourture us poor pathetic students with!

Basically know what you're writing about, or look like an ass when some expert of french life in the 1800's comes and reads your book. LOL!

Get wild with your writing! Have fun with it! These are all things I have said before. But in my personal opinion you have to put a little of everything in your stories to really catch the readers attention so they don't feel like taking a gun to their head when they get so bored with your piece.

The single most important thing to a writer is as Virgina Woolfe (sorry if I mispelled it) says. A Room of One's Own. 

Okay, now I know I can't speak for the thousands of writers out there in the big bad world. I sure as hell wouldn't want to either. However I have found that when you permit your mind to go into a complete state of chaos and go entirely against your normal way of being, most of the time you can create wonderful story plots that could not have ever been envisioned by a sane mind...Twitch Twitch...LOL!