Most people don’t want to write. They want “to have written.” They want to have contributed to the pool of knowledge. They want to have their name on something. I get that. I understand that. I sympathize with that.

Thirsty readers are always the most likely candidates to become exhilarating writers. “For as you read, so will you write.”

Can you name at least 6 books that you have read cover-to-cover in the past 12 months? I’m not talking about magazines, or blog posts, or listening to podcasts or reading this-or-that online. I’m talking about books written and edited by people who have devoted their lives to the craft.

Can you show me a box in your closet, a drawer in your desk, or a file on your computer where you are storing several hundred things that you have written over the years? I don’t care if they are short stories, poems, songs, screenplays, or novels. I care only that you write because you cannot keep yourself from doing so.