How it Happens

So you want to write? 

Step to it. Learn by doing. Learn from others.

Make good things happen with these five steps:  

1. Take Your inspiration from a Nike ad and Just Do It. Move from a writer-wannabe to actually being a writer. Stop wishing. Start doing. Everyday. 
2. Take classes and workshops. Know how painful it is to be critiqued and have your feet held to the fire. If you can handle the critique and learn from it--then write, rewrite, rewrite--your craft will improve.
3. Take time. Steal time to write because the clock won't stop for you. The husband or wife and kids (and probably the dog) will need your attention. The phone will ring. Emails will interrupt. Time will slip away unless you set it aside and honor it. Writing is hard work. So show up. At midnight when everyone's asleep? On Sunday when the children hang out with grandma and grandpa? Or on your lunch hour? Do the math: 4 lunch hours a week X 52 weeks a year = 208 hours of writing. 
4. Take yourself out the door & Schmooze. A writer's life is solitary and isolated when you're actually writing. When not writing, network, interact, schmooze. (Swap social media for real-life socializing.) Ideas are everywhere and so are connections. You'll bump into them accidentally. 
5. Take a big, scary step. Take your writing to a place it's never been. Sign on to this really cool workshop: Write & Sketch in Spain. May 9-10, 2014. Save your place in an international group of 10 writers in Spain's stunning Andalucia region. Make things happen. 

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This week's POV thanks to #Stephen King:

Writing is magic, 

as much the water of life as any other creative art. 

The water is free. So drink.