Getting Started as a Writer



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“If you want to be a writer,

you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
(Stephen King, On Writing. Sell your iPhone and buy this book!)

I once read and record about novelist Sinclair Lewis was supposed to deliver an hour-long lecture to a group of college students who planned to be writers. Lewis opened his talk with a question: “How many of you really intend to be writers?”

All hands went up. “In that case,” said Lewis, “my advice to you is to go home and write.”

With that, he left.

People often asked me how to write. My answer is the same as Sinclair Lewis “go home and write” or simply put – start to write. True that getting started is the hard part of writing. You may stare at your notebook or computer monitor for hours and the right words doesn’t seem to come out. But just like learning to ride a bicycle, at first it was so hard and impossible to do: falling, bleeding, crying and standing up again. Then after awhile (added with encouragements and determinations) you begin to mastered balancing, handling and paddling. Lo and behold, you ride a bicycle! You get the firsts of everything and take time to learn a skill but once you mastered it (or know just how to do it) the rest come out easily.

What to write? You can start to write from what you see, smell, hear and feel. Hendry David Thoreau suggests, “The forcible writer stand boldly behind his words with his experience. He does not make books out of books, but he has been there in person.” Now, get a pen or keyboard and start to write! J

Remember this rule of writing:

“Never try to impress people with the profundity of your thought

or by obscurity of your language.

Whatever has been thoroughly thought through can be stated simply.” (Unknown)

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.