A while ago, I attended a reading/promotional event put on by a company that provides services for writers. They do editing, coaching, interior layout, etc. While networking, I met a man who wanted to write science fiction. We spent the next thirty minutes talking about the current state of writing, of what you need to do become an author, to write fiction, and tell stories. I could have chatted with him even longer. I had more to say.

In part, I have more to say because I listen. I know a lot of writers, some successful, some not so much, some friends and some mentors. I listen and remember.

And that brings me to the very first thing you have to do to become a writer and author. It’s going to sound silly, but it isn’t. It’s the basis, the bedrock, of the entire thing.

To be a writer, you have to do one thing; write.

Do the Research, but Write too

The guy I met had spent a lot of time researching how to write. He read up on character and plot and description. He looked at marketing and the state of publishing. He talked to his wife and friends about writing. What he had not done was write.

Reading about character arcs or the Hero’s Journey may not be what you need in the first place. What if things like that are your strengths? To find out about strengths and weaknesses, you have to write a story.

If you’re thinking about writing, or have always wanted to write, odds are, you have at least a story or two in your head that you’ve been telling yourself for a long time. Now is the time: sit down at your computer or grab a notebook and pen. Write a sentence, then another. Don’t even worry about whether it’s good or not, even if you use the clichés like, “It was a dark and stormy night,” or “John woke up…”

There are two secrets here:

  1. If you don’t start, you can’t finish, and if you can’t finish, you can’t get published, so start writing
  2. Second, stories can be changed. What you put on the page is not sacred. After a while, this becomes easy.

Throw out a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, or even a character. Sometimes writers will throw out the entire story and tell it again in a different way. I did that a few months ago — an entire 25,000 word novella had to be chucked so I could tell the story the right way. It just wasn’t working. But I had written enough stories, gotten enough feedback, that I could tell the story wasn’t working. Without having written entire stories, I could not have gained that knowledge and understanding. (The other thing to do, of course, is read. See how other authors handle their stories.)

Still More Secrets

There is more, of course. Once you’ve written the first sentence, write the second. All the successful writers I know write every day, but even that isn’t strictly necessary. If you work best writing in bursts, that’s fine. The problem is you can’t really know what works for you without first writings some stories. It’s also very easy to tell yourself you write in bursts as a way to procrastinate. Thus, to start with, set out to write every day. And once you have written the first sentence or first paragraph, write the next sentence and the one after that.

Until you’ve written some stories, you won’t know how you write best, makes you tick as a writer. It took me years to figure out I was a seat-of-the-pants writer. When I start, I know the main characters, what the situation is, and what the ending will be. Then I just put one sentence after the other. A different writer will plot every scene before beginning. Some writers do short stories without plotting, but plot everything in a novel. But until you’ve actually put words on paper (or on the screen) you won’t be able figure things like that out.

There’s an implication I haven’t covered here; that to get feedback, to improve, to find your own style, you don’t just have to write, you have to finish what you write. Of course, you can’t do any of that without just writing.

I saw a study once that said the college students who become professional musicians practice more, even as little as ten or twenty minutes more a day. Over the four years of college, that becomes hundreds of hours. These musicians also took more breaks, spreading out their practices more. For us writers, we practice by writing. I’ve heard it said that you have to write a million words of crap before you write anything good. Your mileage will vary, of course. It probably took me longer than that. Don’t be daunted. Instead, give yourself permission to write bad stories, bad paragraphs, and bad sentences. Then, as a reader, cultivate an appreciation of a well written scene or sentence.

There’s another thing I’ve learned: talent is primarily working your ass off. If you read some author that amazes you, maybe Stephen King, or Ursula K. LeGuin, or Brandon Sanderson, understand that they didn’t start out writing at that level. All of them wrote bad stories. Now some of those bad stories might have been in High School, but it doesn’t matter how early you start or how long it takes you to get there, put in the work and someday someone will call you talented and ask how you did that.

There is much more to say about writing and becoming an author, but before you are ready for those observations, commit to writing every day, even if it’s just one sentence. As a mentor said, if you write once sentence a day, you will finish a story, and then another and another. Anyone can write one sentence day. And most of the time, when you finish that sentence, you’ll keep going and write another.

If you find you can’t write one sentence a day, then the problem is not time, and you need to search for what the problem is. Fear of failure? Fear of success? You don’t see how you’ll ever be good enough? Once you’ve figured out why you’re not writing, do the work to fix that issue.

Then write. Like I said, that’s first secret to becoming a writer.

You can do it. I know you can.