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People are always asking me how I managed to write and publish novels, and have a screenplay and have spec scripts and short stories and pilot scripts-not bragging-this is 10+ years of hard work-done and I always say, “Well I just wrote them.”

Or I get, “How did write your first novel?” I say, “I had an idea and I wrote it.”

If want to be a writer it’s really simple, it can’t be any easier if you tried. You know what you need to do? WRITE!

BOOM! You’re now a writer. Okay to be a quote un-quote professional writer you need to get paid to write, but if you don’t write you will never do that.

When I meet new aspiring writers I always aks them what they are writing. When they said nothing but they have an idea, I lose interest real fast. We all have ideas, but to be a writer you have to write them down. This isn’t information that I gathered from a book about writing it is the simple facts to be a writer you need to write.

You should also be writing every single day. If you aren’t feeling creative, write a blog, or  a short story for yourself, just get something down on paper-WORD, FINAL DRAFT, whatever you are using.

If you are trying to finish a novel-just do it. Write, tell the story and don’t worry about being a great writer-worry about telling a great story and don’t even worry about that, just write it and then go back and tweak it.

If you are on a screenplay-same thing-just get it out.

I run into so many writers who tell me they are worried about structure and all those things that you read in every screenwriting book so they aren’t writing. Listen, all those things are important, but if you have no story to write then none of those things matter.

You want to write a screenplay? Write it! Or at the very least spend time writing about your characters. Who are they? What do they want? How do they feel? Just do an exercise and write it down.

There are many ways to become a writer, but the basic most simple way is to write and do it all the time. If it’s work to write, then maybe you like the idea of writing more than actually writing. Me? I love to write. I love to work on any project and yeah I write lots of dud scenes or boring chapters that get tossed, but at least I write them.

There are lots of writing groups out there and things like NaNoWriMo-which also has a screenwriting one in April that are there just for the purpose of getting you writing.

I joined a writing group that used to meet once a month and I was surprised at how many people actually didn’t write. I was always shaking my head like, what?

So my advice-take it or leave it-is if you want to be a writer, WRITE.