Advice to beginning SF writers? Write a lot, finish what you write, and when it's done, keep sending it out for quite awhile.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As a writer, you have to first of all write what you want to. Listen to advice, by all means, but don't get bogged down in it.
My biggest bits of advice are, write as much as you can, finish what you start, get a thick skin, don't take crap from anyone, but also live your life and have fun. The stereotype of a writer holed up alone all day is really unhelpful. You can't write real people and real emotion if you don't let yourself experience them.
When I was a teenager, I got into SF, quite heavily, and that too has had a major impact on my writing.
What kind of hard SF do I write? Everything from near-future, Earth-centric techno-thrillers to far-future, far-flung interstellar epics.
The most important advice I can offer is that writing is a craft that you can learn by practicing. If you keep writing, you will improve.
If you want to be a writer, just write. There's no magic to it.
The single best piece of advice I give to aspiring writers is to always write about things that they know. I suggest that they write about people and places and events and conflicts they are familiar with. That way their writing will be real and hopefully readers will respond to it. I try to take my own advice.
My writing process is very organic. I start with an idea. I have the general story arc and the cast. But then I sit down to write, and things change.
My best advice for writers is: Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poorly - all these make for great stories.
If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles.