Youve finally decided its time to act upon your dreams and fantasies of being the next J. K. Rowling, or maybe even the English bard William Shakespeare. Begin with a burning passion for writing, so that whether you succeed or not, you know youve done your best. It has once been said that writing is a talent, thrust upon the Lord to a few gifted individuals. But there are more than a dozen kinds of writing flooding the market today. All you have to do is find your niche.

The Equipment

Here are the basic tools:

Paper and pens
A computer
A dictionary and thesaurus
Reference books

The Practice

There are numerous ways to start writing. Ill give three:

Start a daily or weekly journal. Record your thoughts, and just let the ideas flow. Dont worry about grammar or proper sentence structure first. The goal of this activity is to get you to express yourself as much as possible.
Make lists. For example, Ten Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 30, How Ill Schedule Exercise Into my Daily Routine, etc. Making lists pinpoints your inner desires for every area of your life.
Decide on one area of writing wherein youd like to excel. Log online and look for samples of works in that area. For example, if youd like to write narrative essays, then look for at least 10 of the best narrative essays ever written. Learn from them, even imitate them.

The Rewards

The rewards, Im afraid, come only after periods of hard work and concentration. And not everyone will like what youve written. My advice is not to take this craft too seriously. Some of the best authors in literary history have been gunned down by critics. Just continue to plough through if you really think writing is for you.

I graduated with a Career Diploma in Short Story Writing + Freelance Journalism from Penn Foster Career School. I have written thousands of essays, articles, poems, and original, pithy quotations that I would like to share with you through this site. Right now my goal is just to contribute as many times as possible and increase my chances of being read.