Many people dream of writing that bestseller and living the life of Ernest Hemingway ever after.

Unfortunately, the dream of stardom remains a dream for many would be writers. Even professional writers with years of experience and thousands of articles and books behind them never see their names in lights and few ever make a full time income from their craft.

Writing is a difficult profession. Many writers make enough to offset their jobs and not every writer holds a BA in English literature. In fact, there are more writers that fare better writing and selling their material online than ever find their material in a hard cover book.

But once the effort required is realized, many are intimidated by the process. Writing a first draft, rewriting, revision, editing and producing a finished piece is hard enough without finding that publisher who is willing to turn the piece into a book.

But no one needs to feel intimidated if they are willing to take the time to practice the craft. For many, writing is a passion. They would do it without any compensation. But just like learning to play the piano, writing must be practiced if it is to be perfected. Getting words on paper or into the word processor is the first step to getting started. It takes a good deal of courage to start submitting and expect to get repeated rejections.

So how can you learn the love of writing?

* It sounds too simple. But nothing gets started unless you start writing. Preferably you should write about something you already know, something that you are already passionate about.

* Don't try to write your first draft like a professor. Spelling and grammar aren't the most important issues. The idea is to simply write down everything that crosses your mind. Drain that brain until there's nothing left to write about. Then you can take a look at all those typos, spelling errors and those words you write but don't recognize.

* Let someone read it. So you might turn red if your spouse and your best friend starts laughing at what you've written. Explain to them it's only a first draft. If they still chortle, tell them you're writing humor. If they continue to guffaw, insist they write something better. That should choke off any more laughter since they won't know as much as you do about the subject and likely couldn't put two words together for a kindergarten kid to understand.

* You'll never hone your writing skills with the first sentence. Practice helps you find

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