In my last blog I wrote about the first thing you need to do to become a writer. Today, I’m going to talk about the second thing you need to be to become a writer. And that thing is: you have to take your writing seriously. By that I don’t mean get all stressed out and crazy about it. I mean study writing. Read as much as you can about the craft. Read books that discuss characterization, setting, motivation, emotions, description, dialogue, themes, plot, structure, grammar. I know, everyone hates grammar, but it’s really fun once you get into it. Being able to take a tired phrase and rework it so that the same old things sounds and feels like something totally new is an awesome thing to do. Read all types of works, including the classic you hated to read in high school. You can learn a lot about writing from the classic, and if you let yourself go, you can be thoroughly entertained by them. But if you want to be a romance writer, then you have to immerse yourself in the genre. Find out why people love reading these stories over and over again. Find out what makes a happy ending. What makes a woman irresistible? What makes a man charismatic? If you want to write horror, which I’m going to do someday, then you have to read horror to find out how plots unfold. How, when and why to have someone killed. I know it all seems at random, but there is a reason for every killing in horror. Every character must die a certain way, for a certain reason, at a certain time. That’s what makes horror scary.

Writing is the coolest thing. If you want to do it right, you have to learn everything there is to know about it, and understand that when you think you have it all down pact, something new will come along. Enjoy.