Become A Writer, How To Start

So you're thinking about becoming a fiction writer, but you don't know how? You're asking yourself: Should you get into book writing classes, have someone teach you first—do you even have the talent?

How To Become A Writer

Becoming a writer is a simple process: Sit down, write something. Let it be flawed but something concrete, like a full short story or poem, or a completed chapter. Now give it to someone for feedback, and use the feedback to improve it!

Congratulations, you are now a writer. Actually writing something, then investing the work of revising, that's all there is to it. Revision is key, since almost no first draft is excellent.

About Writing Courses

Now you may ask what the deal is with writing classes, writing books? Don't I need those before I can be a “real” writer?

While writing books can be very helpful later, at first I recommend writing on your own. There is no other way to find out if you actually like it, and if you hate writing then there are plenty of other jobs paid better and less fickle.

I highly recommend writing books and classes for later, after your first independent attempts, so you understand better what advice is helpful to you. Writing advice needs to fit your writing type and personal thinking.

For the initial getting started, if you're stuck you can try my basic advice on the general writing approaches.

Do I Need to Be Reading Books?

A final note since this sometimes comes up. Can you become a writer without reading books a lot?

The short answer is probably not. The long answer is that you'll occasionally need new input and something to aspire and compare to. But don't beat yourself up if you're not reaching a quota, just make sure to keep reading once in a while.

Thanks for reading the article. Find more advice on writing here. And remember, always keep writing to get better!