Every published writer I know will
tell you the same thing. The most often asked question of us is – how do you
become a writer? I’ve written lots of articles for various publications around
this subject and here is a distilled version of each of them!

So, if you think you have a book in you, or you’re planning on being the next John Grisham, here’s my advice…

Absolutely, now is the time to start
that novel!

From what I can see, there are two
types of writers out there:

a) The Plotters – ie, people who sit
down and draw up diagrams and personalities for characters and know exactly
what the very final words on the page will be before they begin!

b) The Pansters! these are the people
who tend to actually write books and get to the end and even get published! You
might call them chancers, or flying by the seat of their pants, but the reality
is, to write a book, the hardest part for most people is beginning it. We can
all hang around like that famous Shakespearean character and procrastinate
until the cows come home, but without putting words on the page, I’m afraid it
won’t get written.

So my advice to you is this…

If you have an idea, start
scribbling. Don’t worry if you’re beginning at the start, the middle or the
end. Anything you write will not be wasted.

I’m not saying everything you write
will be published, but I do believe that any of us writing now have served a
sort of private apprenticeship, which has involved putting many words on the
page which never see the light of day.

I could regale you with finding
novels (yes complete novels 100k words) on my computer and having forgotten I
actually wrote a whole book – this has happened to me twice and on one of those
occasions, I’m really glad I didn’t send it out to an agent, because it was, in
hindsight complete drivel!

So, write what you can, if you come
to a road block stop and write something else, mix it up with a short story or
a poem, give the work time to breathe and then go back and edit, again and
again and again.

Writing and publishing is hard, there
are no easy routes, but you might be lucky and get your work out there straight
off – my hope for you is that you do!

If you don’t, the second piece of
advice I’ll give you is…. don’t give up! It really is worth it, if you want
it badly enough