As a published author, often I hear people ask, "I have a great idea for a book. How should I go about having it published?"

My answer is, "Well, first you have to write it, then it gets more difficult." That isn't what they want to hear, so maybe I need to change my answer, but it's the honest answer.

Other things aspiring writers say are, "I get started but can't seem to finish it." I am guilty of that, also, and can answer that one better.

There are many creative writing courses and venues, and they serve a purpose. I find them to be suppressive of my creative instincts, however. I wrote one book, many years ago, mostly from boredom. It's a long story I won't go into, but I wrote it on legal pads, and never typed it for publication. The world didn't lose anything, it wasn't that good. It did spark the desire to someday write books for a living, which I now do, so it wasn't wasted effort.

It was many years later that I found the discipline and the ability to write. Here is the advice I would give anyone who wants to write professionally, and are having trouble making the transition from thinking to writing: Just write, write anything, write on helium, write for a blog, write for your spouse or partner, but write, think, and write some more.

Will that make you a successful writer? No, but it will help make the transition from thinking about writing to writing. Later, you need to learn to organize your thoughts better, and learn to use the language better, and then punctuation, and sentence structure, etc. It won't all happen at once, but it can happen if you write, and won't ever happen if you don't write.

A bit more advice:
Buy a good computer with a great word processor. I can't imagine how writers in the past managed to write, edit, and publish without these essential tools. I admire their work, and am sure that the reason the quality of literature has diminished is the availability of our modern writing tools, making it easier for me, and I am glad.

On that computer, organize your thoughts and ideas into files. I have non-fiction, essays, articles, fiction novels and fiction short stories. When you have a thought you want to develop, write the idea in any form that works for you, and file it. Make it your job to check those files weekly, and develop some idea into something worthy of publication, and then try to get it publishedon-line, or in print; it doesn't matter.

Take classes or converse with other writers via internet or other venues, but never forget your audience, real people, not just writers. Writers seem to get caught up in over analyzing literature, and lose their audience in my opinion. Show your work to your friends; trust me, they will be your worst critics. They will lie to you and demean your efforts, both over-praising and over criticizing it. "Why do it?" you ask. If you can survive that, you can survive anything, and survival is the most important element of writing; once you begin writing, not just thinking about writing.

Oh, and the title said "Getting over yourself...." You can't do that. You must embrace yourself to overcome your fears, and a great way to do that is by writing, so don't get over yourself, get into yourself, and write, write, write.

Learn more about this author, Will Kester.
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