1.  Do your research. Everyone can benefit from a little research.  I bet if Paolini had, he wouldn't have written Lord of the Star Wars Dragonriders of Pern.  Stephanie Meyer might have depicted Forks a little more accurately.  Odds are, the idea for your story is not as unique as you think.  Are there other stories out there like it?  How can you make yours different? (And saying "Because it's meeeeeeee!" doesn't count.  Boy, does it ever not.) Research can be anything from reading a vast swathe of YA to find out what's selling right now, to skimming Wikipedia articles for just how that piece of armor or weapon worked, to interviewing someone knowledgeable about a subject you want to include in your book.  Most of the time, if you tell people you're writing a book, they get really excited about being consulted about it.  And yes, that's a lot of reading.  Because if you're writing, or want to be a writer, you should already be reading.  A lot.  More than the average person.  I read about 3-5 (or more) novels a week when I'm idea hunting, and average about 1-2 when I'm not.  Writers who complain about having to read are oxymorons.  It's like a sniper saying he doesn't practice  shooting, or an equestrian complaining about horses.  Words and the craft of storytelling are your bread and butter: get used to it.  Or don't write. (Odds are, if you're not reading, you won't write well anyway.)  Reading everything and anything encompasses about 90% of your research.  Deconstruct your favorite books, why the scene works or the dialogue pops, why the author chose this word or that word.  It's research.  Do it.

2.  Keep a working journal. I'm sure I've mentioned before that the physical act of writing is stimulating in and of itself, and that I keep a text file and a working journal when I'm world and plot-building.  Having a physical journal is pretty indispensable.  I'm a horrible nerd, so my working journals have to look like they came out of or belong to the worlds I'm writing in.  My urban fantasy journal is a dark, black deal with gothic linework and gilt edges, and my steampunk Western is leather with an impressed design that just screams Old West and can be tied shut with the same kind of ties you find on a Western saddle.  Both of them were purchased at my local Barnes and Noble.  (My old high fantasy The Dragon Rose had heraldic flowers of gilt embossed on blue-black leather.)  It's inspiring and helpful, I think, to have such a thing, something that will hold the soul of the story.  Others might not care about that, and be perfectly happy with a spiral, or one of those little ones that can fit in your purse or pocket so you can whip it out when you get that idea.  A journal not only becomes a helpful tool for building the story, but it also becomes a working record of how you work.  It's pretty interesting to come back to notes that you ended with a question mark because you weren't sure it would work, and realize that right there was when you got the crux of the story.  I usually find it helpful to put a heading on my pages, a flip through of my Daemonfire journal revealed the following headings: Characters, Setting, Races, Musings, Flora and Fauna, notes on bo staff use, and Chapters.  Musings are my ideas that don't have a place yet, and Flora and Fauna are awesome to
just list things that grow or live in the area where the story takes place, and when you're caught describing things that might be around, you have a whole list to choose from.

3.  Have a closed door. When I was younger and still living with my folks, my computer was located in the playroom, a den-type area where a TV and video games were.  It had no door, and without fail, my mom would walk in with a chore right at the most exciting part of my writing.  "And with a mighty leap, the dragon spewed forth fire that threatened all of-" "Can you take out the trash?"  (I suspect it was impossible for her to walk by me at the keyboard and not think I was being lazy.)  To this day, I hate being  nterrupted when I'm writing.  My friends comment about me being in "novel mode", because I cloister myself so bad.  I don't answer the phone or even hear it ring, because I'm behind a closed door to concentrate.  And that's the whole point of it.  I am a writer because I write, not because I promise myself I will and then get distracted by the Internet or friends who want to hang out.  Stephen King points out that a closed door is a promise, a sign to the outside world that you intend to see this thing through.  Writing, at least the professional kind, is not a lark or a hobby.  The average novel takes a year to write, rewrite, and polish, let alone submit and get published, and many novels take even longer.  The closed door becomes especially important when the shine comes off the apple; usually about halfway or three-fourths of the way through the novel where you're tapped out and you just want it to end.  Make a closed door part of your habit and you might have an easier time seeing things
through.  Better yet, let folks know that when the door is closed, whatever they have can wait.

4. Stop whining and milking it. I really don't even know where to begin with this one, but man, it needs to be said.  Get into a room of writers (or better yet, wannabe writers), and you will hear every complaint in the book about why they can't find time to write.  Their job, they're tired, they have kids, they have social obligations, they think they're hacks, they just haven't found the time ... blah blah blah.  My immediate judgement?  Lazy.  Undisciplined.  And probably writing for the wrong reasons (or looking to commiserate, which is an admittedly favorite pastime of writers.)  You sleep for 8 hours, you work for 8 hours, that leaves a grand total of 40 hours a week for you to work on your writing.  And yeah, that includes that hour drive to and from work (I work on my stories all the time while I'm driving. And in the shower.  And while I'm waiting to fall asleep and doing my chores.)  Too many people complain and whinge about anything, and I'm astonished at the number of people who blog and forum post about it!  Those keystrokes could have been spent writing.  Don't tell me you get stuck at the keyboard when you've had all freaking day to figure out what you're going to write yet, or better yet, had the chance to scribble down so you can refer to it later.  Don't tell me you're "not feeling the muse" when everyone else from a doctor to a garbageman manages to drag themselves into doing what needs to be done for that day.  And most importantly, stop telling yourself you suck.  First of all, no one wants to hear it, and second of all, in a room full of writers, you've got your work cut out for you figuring out who feels the worst.  (Check out the suicide rates for artists versus everyone else.)  Agents, editors, and readers don't care how much you bleed out and cried and felt terrible.  They want a story, dammit.   Get to writing it!  At the risk of sounding pithy and trite, I'll give you one of the phrases hanging on my studio wall: "A negative attitude will corrode your creative landscape more surely than a torrent of criticism."

5. Set attainable goals. I know a lot of beginning writers have trouble with the whole self-discipline thing.  Hell, most non-writers fail miserably at it.  But I notice a particular pattern among people who want to write more.  They set these massive goals, like 10 or 20 pages a day, 2000 words a day, or some other goal that are really professional tier goals, fail to attain it, and then beat themselves up crying "Stupid!  Stupid!" all the while.  NaNoWriMos in particular are prone to this (I'm not sure if garroting oneself with an impossible deadline is a way to get good prose, but I probably write faster than most NaNos anyway, so I don't have to worry about it, ha ha!)  Really, it should be the other way around.  Set small goals for yourself.  One sentence a day.  Or a paragraph a day.  Pretty much anything a day, especially at the same time, is a good way to start building yourself a foundation for disciplined writing.  It ain't that hard, especially when you start combining it with the other rules.  You've done your research, given yourself a pep talk, now walk in, close the door, and write a sentence.  When you're done, reward yourself.  Repeat as needed.  Sooner or later you'll start feeling the flow, going further, getting into a character or a scene.  That just becomes the icing on the cake.  Because believe me, you're gonna need to feel good about yourself.  No one else is gonna do it for you, unless they're writers, too.  I dare you to say "A writer is a person who has written today" to a stranger and watch them blink and say "So you're published?"