How to Be a Writer in 3 (not-so-easy) Steps

Aspiring writers love to read about writing. We love to talk about writing. We love to go to writing conferences and writing groups and writing websites. We love to do just about anything but sit down and write-that's the scary part. What if we're doing it wrong?

We want details. We want instruction. We want them up front, so we know what to expect, so we can make sure we're not screwing all of this up. We want to know what we're getting into. We want to know that we're not wasting our time.

But, guess what? We already know. Everyone knows how to be a writer.

1. Sit down in a chair.
2. Write.
3. Eventually, when you are ready, let others read what you have written.

Each step is simple. Each step is crucial. Each step is unending.

I truly believe that the details beyond these three steps are not within a writer's control. We cannot align the arc of the universe to place the agent, the publisher, the consumer, or any other aspect beyond the page into the perfect spot at the perfect moment. All of those details will come to pass, if we do our part, if we follow these three steps without fail.

Perhaps our one choice in the whole endeavor is the chair. You could choose the floor instead, or the couch, a futon, the porch swing. The point is you have to stop what you are doing, and sit down. You can't write while driving or teaching or talking or vacuuming or reading or doing laundry or listening to someone else talk. (Believe me, I've tried.) Writing involves pen on paper or fingers on keyboard. Writing demands solitude.

Then you actually have to write. Not outline or summarize. Not list the characters or describe the setting or jot down plot points or doodle cartoons in the margins. Oh, you can do these things, but at some point you will have to actually write a piece of readable text, a cohesive and appealing body of work.

Finally, you have to let others read it. Writing is meant to be read. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. Hide all those first drafts in your sock drawer if you want (I've done it, too), but you know you want people to read them. Only you will know when you're ready for this third step. Don't rush it. Don't send out a first draft of something that you're not quite sure of yet. The criticism will make you want to give up right then and there, and that will make it even harder to begin again with the first step.

Because you will have to go back to the first step. Again and again. And then on to the second. And then the third. Repeat until forever.

That is called Being a Writer.