My magazine writing class had a visitor tonight: Jeff Ruby, a freelance writer and Chicago Magazine's lead restaurant critic. The man, who's been writing restaurant reviews for 17 years, told us he learned to write by keeping a journal. He wrote in it every day for seven years and, while he wasn't trying to, he figured out style and structure and everything one needs to write well in that time.

He quoted David Carr, who relayed the best journalism advice he ever got to the world in a 2013 Reddit AMA. "Keep typing until it turns into writing."

Turning a novice writer into his or her best self involves is a well-documented process. They say writing is a muscle. You have to write a lot to develop a voice on paper. You have to write even you don't want to if you want make something in a timely manner. Advice rarely endures long enough to get anointed as cliché without also ringing at least a little bit true.