Wanna Be a Writer? (About half do)

Robert A. Heinlein once gave a commencement address at Annapolis; it was summarized in an Analog editorial, but you can find the thing elsewhere (Google’s your friend). It’s also quoted as a 1947 essay titled “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction” in several places.

These five steps each cut the wannabe writing population by IIRC about half, and that’s why there are, of the ~250m population of the US at the time, only a couple thousand full-time writers. (Paraphrasing):

1.  Write it down.  (Head-notes are like air guitar; nice, but there's no there there.)

2.  Finish it.  (Then it's real.  See #1.)

3.  DON’T change, except by an editor’s request.  (Editing has changed; you may have to fix something yourself, once it's done.)

4.  Actually be brave and send it out; you’ll get rejections.  (Grow  a thick skin;  then you're a writer.)

5.  KEEP sending it out until it sells. Then you’re a published writer.