Hi, I'm Willie, and I'm an author.

If that sounds like an AA introduction, it might be more apt than you think. Writing is an addiction, and I'm hooked.

I started nearly ten years ago now. Since then I've had over 150 short stories published in the horror and fantasy genre press, I've slowly changed career so that I work as a technical author for a living, and I've recently sold my first novel.

In this article I'm going to share what I've learned so far, but remember, I'm still on the steps as well, just a bit higher up.

Step 1: Get an Idea

For me, they come visually, like photographs of a particular scene. I look closely at the scene, and the participants start to move and talk. The story forms from there.

Whichever way the idea comes, hold on to it. Don't let it go. Ideas are precious and there are only so many new ones to go around. I carry a notebook at all times in which I jot them down. It tends to be full of fragmentary pieces of information such as "Remember the fat man with the umbrella", but it is enough to jog my memory later on.

Step 2: Write It

This is the important bit.

Many people get to step one, get a fully formed idea in their heads then they never go any further. They look up the staircase ahead of them, decide it's too steep, and they stop. (Personally I'd shoot them for using up a perfectly good idea, but that's just the addict in me taking over)

Here's Willie's first rule:

Don't look up to the next steps until you've completed the one you're on.

At this stage, the most important thing you can do is sit on your rear-end at a table and write. It doesn't matter what medium you use, pen and paper, word processor, charcoal or crayon. Get the idea out of you and onto something else. Only then can you sit back and look at it without passion. And quickly following the first rule comes the second:

Always read what you've written and rewrite if necessary

Editors are always commenting on the amount of rubbish they receive. A lot of this could be avoided if authors re-read what they'd written before sending it out for consideration. This is especially true in these high-tech days where the click of a mouse can send a submission around the world in seconds.

So that brings us to rule 3:

Know when to stop.

If you find yourself describing in minute detail the way your hero scratches his bum, you probably need to stop (unless you're writing for some of the more specialist top shelf magazines, but I won't go into that.)

Step 3: Send it

It's time for some research. Most of you will have your favourite magazines, periodicals and books. Do they publish anything like you've written. If not, are their other publishers who do? Take a trip to the library and newsagent and make a list of markets. Rank them in your order of preference. Here's rule 4.

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