The advice to an aspiring writer is always to write. I know you've heard it before so let me explain: write a lot. All the time. More than anyone you know. Do this knowing you don't have to. It's not an assignment. You should enjoy it so much you obsess about it. Go ahead, have something to prove, (if not to the world then at least to yourself). Do whatever makes you crave the page. Just keep writing, because it's fun, and because each time brings you closer to the miracle of actually saying exactly what you mean. A cynic will tell you it never happens. They will say it's like chasing the horizon and they'll try to sell you that nightmare as a dream. I disagree. If you really want to, you will perform this trick again and again.
It won't be easy. If you do it right it should keep you up at night. You'll pace frantically in empty rooms mumbling to yourself, papers folded in your pockets to be combined with jottings copied from social networking sites. You'll be mad for a treasure that some think a myth. You'll chase it like junkies chase dragons, because it will be one of the best feelings in the world. More than likely, nobody will like this about you. Oh sure, they'll enjoy your writing. They'll be attracted to your creativity, and from a healthy distance they'll even get a kick out of your quirky preoccupations. But they won't understand when you can't make time for them because you have to be alone with words. They'll grow to hate the look in your eye when you're only half listening because you're also writing something in your mind. It's sad, but you'll have to let them go. No one is more important than your writing. A single person may be more important than a single book. An hour of friendship may sometimes be better than a page of words. But your whole body of work, that should be the best thing you'll ever do. Your list of goals in life should look like this: 1. Don't die. 2. Raise children (if you should someday have any). 3. Write.
Honestly, I'm okay if you switch 2 and 3, because here's the thing: if you're not writing with the idea that at any moment you could make an immortal work of art, then you're selling yourself short. You're not reaching far enough, and that will stop you from going deep enough within. You may not ever write something the world will consider immortal, but if you don't try you'll also fall short of your best.
Your writing will know before you do who you should keep in your life. Listen to it. If they don't inspire you, you don't need them.
Learning the language is a big help.
I'm serious. This blog isn't advice for someone who likes to write. It's for someone who wants to be a writer. I'm assuming I can't talk you out of it. So if you want to be a writer, you better learn how to write. Grow your natural talent. Read. Take classes. Practice. All of that. Also: use a dictionary. I mean live with it. Make it an extension of yourself. You must have an app on your phone, a bookmark on your browser, and at least one large physical copy lying around your home. Again, this should be fun for you. Synonyms should fascinate you, and the pursuit of the perfect word for your exact intent should thrill you. Study etymology. Study composition and grammar. Re-read what you've written, then read it slower, then out loud. After that try to pretend you're someone else and read it like them. Lock it away somewhere and then (after no less than two weeks) read it again. Fix it along the way. There's no such thing as editing, there is only finished and unfinished. When you're sure it's done, read it until it's memorized. (Once it's memorized, repeat it in your head for fun). Never stop.
Be proleptic. When I decide to write a poem, it's already done. I may still have to actually sit down with paper and pen to work out the details of word-choice and rhyme and meter and meaning, whatever... that's beside the point. I know all that will happen, even if I'm not sure how. This is part of the fun. The path from inspiration to finished is surprising and exhilarating, but when it's finally and fully done, you'll know that it is exactly what it was supposed to be.
This same principal is at play in your life every bit as much as in my poem. What you're trying to write and who you're trying to be are both just the finished and done of an inspiration. You may not fully understand how you'll become a writer, but that's okay. No matter what path you take, you'll get there. It's already done. Right now, stop saying this: "I want to be a writer." Instead say this: "I'm a writer."
There, now you're a writer.
"All that's fine," you may be thinking, "but what about style? What about content? What about how?" Fair enough. I have all kinds of strong opinions about aesthetics. I have deeply held philosophical beliefs that I cram into every sentence. The problem is if I tell you too much about them in this context you may try to mimic me, which is to say you'll write crap. The real goal is for you to develop your own. So here is the most important bit of writing advice I can imagine:
Figure out who you are and never ever stop being that person.
It doesn't matter what type of writing you like to do, you have to know who you are. Not to write it, but for it to be any good. Note that this is a two part deal: 1. Know yourself, and 2. Be yourself. You need the foundation and the application. Then your humanity will magically fuse to the words. Your personality will hang on commas and your soul will dictate rhythm (and your readers will call it your voice amen). At some point you'll run into some really intellectual arguments about how the words are just symbols and meaning rests entirely on the page... stuff about deconstruction and the universe being a cold loveless and sterile place. Let me save you some time: they're wrong. You matter. Who you are and what you believe and how you feel are absolutely essential to your writing. How that all comes about is a deep and divine and magic phenomena that I know about and won't tell you so you'll think about it and discover who you are. Incidentally, this all applies even if you're not a writer.
Lastly I want to leave you with this very practical assertion: You can write anything. Absolutely anything.
I'm not just talking about the limitless possibilities available to your creativity, true as that is, but also about quality. How good or bad your work is has only to do with your ability to judge it honestly and fix it accordingly. It's a matter of knowing when it's done.
You're becoming a better writer every time you write, and as you do, you'll be able to write at a higher level easier and faster all the time. But along the way, determination and discernment will do. You need to get used to this idea. It's okay to start with what you want to create and then figure out how. To be great at anything requires time and (as a result) sacrifice. Don't look for shortcuts. You want to write a masterpiece? Start writing. Fix it until it's finished. Then the next one. Someday you'll be very used to the idea that you're a writer, and you'll know what you're capable of. You'll know that wherever you are it's unlikely that anyone has written as many words as you, and you'll know that means something. If someone asks you to write a particular piece, you'll sit down and do it. They'll read it and exclaim in amazement as if you've done something improbable. You'll know better. You'll think "I've written that a hundred times before." It's what you do. It's who you are. It's already done.
