Writing the next great novel is an extraordinary goal to work toward – books and their authors have brought the world insight, knowledge, illumination, imagination, and much more for thousands of years. The only thing stopping most people from pursuing it is that it requires them to write.

To be a professional writer, one must put in the time and effort to learning their craft. Just as any other aspiring professional, whether a baseball player, an artist, or a doctor, the aspiring writer needs to dedicate their time and mind to their work if they hope to reach their goals.

While athletes train, artists study, and doctors test, there’s one thing that connects them all, and it’s the key to becoming a professional in any field …

Practice.

For the writer, practice consists of both reading and writing. Both are very important to the aspiring writer, for they both play a part in the development of the writer. Setting out to write without reading would be similar to making movies but not watching them, producing wine but not drinking it, or designing cars but not driving them.

Reading

Stephen King is known to read anywhere possible, including waiting rooms, market lines, and the loo – any place where you can fit in a page or two will suffice if you’re able to enjoy a story without having to sit down for hours at a time.

As a runner in Los Angeles, I took King’s advice and started reading in the gridlock traffic on Sunset Boulevard – my reading list had shrunk considerably before I knew it.

The easiest way a writer can start practicing their craft is to simply start reading. Read everything possible. Whether you create a list of what you want to read, follow a book club, or read as you discover compelling stories, you’ll be practicing part of your craft by experiencing your medium from the reader’s perspective. This will help you understand what type of fiction or non-fiction you enjoy most, what you’re drawn to within the story, what works, what doesn’t, and what you’d like to say with your own writing. The more you read, the more you learn.

Read every day where ever possible. If you’re pressed with a busy schedule, consider taking King’s advice and start reading when ever you have a spare moment – the doctor’s office, the market, the loo, or even the car. Audio books are great for readers period, but they’re a great solution for the commuting reader pressed for time.

Writing

On to the harder part – writing. To the writer, writing is what it’s all about. It’s about creating your own stories and using your own unique voice to contribute to the world of fiction, and hopefully entertain the readers of the world. Again, while this is an admirable goal, it’s often easier said (or blogged about) that done.

There’s only one way to become a professional writer: you need to write. There’s no college, certificate program, seminar, guru, or any other force can change that. Again, like the athlete, artist, or doctor, a writer needs to apply their mind and effort to what they want to do … that means writing. While colleges, seminars, books, and the like can help writers better understand aspects of the craft, there’s only one piece of advice that sum up what a writer needs to do to become a professional writer:

Write 1,000 words a day

Whether you’re a novelist, screenwriter, poet, or short fiction writer, you need to put in the practice that your craft requires. Setting a goal to write 1,000 words in your desired medium is like dedicating an hour, two, or three – however long it may take you to write those 1,000 words – of your day to your sport, art, or medical studies, which is exactly what athletes, artists, and doctors do to practice.

Like most everything else, writing isn’t something that happens overnight – if it does, it’s usually an overnight success five, ten, twenty years in the making.

Apply yourself to your craft and you will develop as a writer and position yourself as a professional. Work toward you goals and you’ll find yourself getting closer and closer every 1,000 words.

Create structure & schedule

It’s easy for writers to skip practice and go without writing for days, weeks, months, or even years on end due to the lack of structure or schedule, so it’s crucial for you to set your goal and stick to it. Create your own structure, create your own schedule, and get to work.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to create structure and schedule for your writing, consider subscribing to ScribblePlay.com for the latest writing tips and content. Subscribers receive the latest content via email, which, as a writer’s resource, can become a healthy reminder to keep practicing your craft.