Excerpted from my answer in this post:
Focus on stories. Forget the writing; the writing will take care of itself. Focus on what inspires you. Read. Live through your character's eyes. Know what makes people tick. Know the stories you love and how to get from point a to point b with as many complications as you can throw on there. It's about stories, people.
Fuel selectively. If you fall in love with something (I'm looking at you angsty ships!), it will come out in your stories. Pay attention to the things that unleash your inner fangirl. Fangirl your own fiction. Make it yours. Explain it. Juggle it around until you're satisfied. Love AU (hereby go to original) but make their lousy, crazy canon nonlogic into real logic without changing anything from canon at all—if you can. Learn how to feed your own muse.
Never assume anything. Know your characters, the rules of your world, and a handful of outside factors to fling at them. The rest will be unpredictable—even to you, but inevitable.
Know the difference between voice and tone. Your voice is your writing. Your tone is your story. And for goodness sake, don't read out of tone when you're working. Keep the reading and the writing separate if you're tone-hopping.
No matter what you do in writing, what choice you make, it's fine. As long as you do it consistently.
These are all great thoughts, and I really love 'Fangirl your own fiction.' It always comes back to the story!
Yes, ma'am. It so does. I'm surprised by how much of a difference it makes whether you'd want to read your work if you hadn't written it.