This is how you become a writer. Discipline. Write like this. Get the messages down. Write what you know. Get an interesting life. It makes for better writing. Show. Don't tell. Don't bore the reader. Writing is not life. Writing is language. The eye in your story? It's not you. Nobody cares about you. Only a fool will think that it's you. Then you can make it up. Doesn't that? Doesn't yourself. This is how you spill the family's secrets. Exploit grudges. Mean characteristics of your ex. Why else would you want to be a writer? Write everyday. Write a little everyday. Add some. This is how you go for your first million words. This is how you take care of the quantity while God takes care of the quality. Don't worry about grammar. Worry about grammar. No good writer word herself can spell. This is how you imitate what you love before you get your own style. This is how you slide the sentence in a paragraph. This is how you write a poem on your leading. A poem is nothing without a good idea. This is how you get a good idea. Believe in yourself. Really? This is how you know redemption. This is how you believe in words. In a turn of phrase. This is how you write a story that heals and image that breaks the heart. Why? This is how you open. Read. This is how you do not get stale. Read. Read what you love and read what you don't. This is how you break from sentence. This is how words can liberate you. This is how you hone your craft. Write. This is how you write. Write regularly. Don't write to get love. This is how it's not always about you. This is how you are always about you. This is how you edit for substance. Then grammar. This is what structure is like. Write for yourself. Edit for the reader. This is how you create communication. This is how you do not ask your best friend, your family or your lover to read your writing. These are not always honest people. This is how not to get published. This is how you will not call yourself a writer in public before you're published, especially to a publisher who could not make it as a writer. This is how to get published. Go to literary events and how none would publish her. This is how to go out after the event for a drink. This is where everybody gets tipsy. This is where language leads. This is how some publishers like to discover. This is how to become an up and coming star. This is when you decide there's more to writing than just writing. This is how this is when you decide not to give up your day job or leave your employed lover for your art. This is how you believe in yourself. Really believe in yourself. This is how writing decides you. This is how you search for self. This is how images find you. This is how you become a writer.