Im ashamed to admit it, but I have. Im like you, it sounds fantastic in my head but then when you start writing you like, "This is crap!". Then sometimes theres alot of research involved and it seems like too much work, especially for a first timer. I remember I first tried in high school because I was given extra credit for composition and clever writing on my reports.
Then I tried again recently. I had just finished a couple of books by the Brontes, and thought if they could get such god-awful books published I could too!
But ive never written more than a few chapeters, lol. Im just not ambitous enough to take on an entire book. I like reading better too! :-)
CMK

I tried once, but the story took on a life of its own and I didn't like where it was going!

Trying to write a book is a daunting goal. Most people do founder. But if you really feel like you want to try, then the best way to become a writer is to write. I write every day-whether it is something that will be published or not. I blog, I journal, I note down conversations I overhear or things I see happen that I might use someday, I play with descriptions, I review a book...but I do not let a day go by without putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. My published writing is almost all short stories to be read by school students, since I write for educational publishing houses-but who knows. Someday I might do a book. If it's there.
Christin-what didn't you like about the Brontes?
Carolyn-stories do that!

CC- Thanks for the tips, maybe I just need a bit more self confidence. The stories I think of seem to involve a lot of research. I think I know a lot until I go to write it down and then I realize, wow, I don't know that much, LOL.

I consider myself a writer, since I've written poetry and essays most of my life. During the last decade, I had the achievement of having several of my poems published in literary magazines. A few years ago, I felt the challenge to begin my first novel. I've worked out all the characters and the plot, but found the experience utterly exhausting. Also, "real life" intruded upon this project.

I think to be a serious writer requires time with no interruptions and no distractions, so difficult for some of us to find. I've also found that one must be rather a "loner", an introvert.Writers are generally not social butterflies and we understand solitude.

My novel remains unfinished, although I still have some chapters completed and have kept all my notes. I continue to read poetry and appreciate excellent writing that others achieve.I also write in my journals most evenings, as an expression of the creative spirit. (I deem it "calling the Muse.")

I had the bug when I was young, but I never had the discipline. I did more thinking about it than actual writing, and I never honed my skills. I took a creative writing class in college, for which I received an "A", but realized I had more desire than talent, and then life got ahold of me and I never wrote after that. These days, I consider myself just a reader with an interest in the craft, though stories do float around in my head and I sometimes wish I could bring them to life, but my life is full of those things Mary talks about -- distractions, interruptions, and responsibilities that throw me literally off the path.

I have also noticed that I tend to like authors who are considered writers' writers. I wonder if there are readers who are writers' readers and those who are readers' readers (does that make sense--and how is that for an awkward construction?). Anyway, I suppose I'm veering off topic.

I do think it is important, if you have the bug, to do as CC suggests (don't worry about the mechanics, whether it is any good, or what others might make of it). Write something every day, even if it's just a snippet or displaced thoughts in a journal. I think writing skills can atrophy just as muscles atrophy if you don't use them. Some people have the ability to make it seem a natural talent, but it takes both -- work and talent, I think. The bottom line is that writers write... The rest of us are just dreamers, I suppose.

life does intrude! I heard Alexandra Stoddard speak once and she wrote her first book while working full time and having at least one small child-she got up every day at 4 a.m. and wrote for an hour before her life geared up.
That's being driven.

I suppose that if I was meant to be a writer nothing else would really matter to me; my writing would be my hobby, my career, my everything. But as it stands, there are many other things that are more interesting to me than writing. Im not sure I agree that a writer has to be an introvert (or sometimes) to write. If someone was writing about society or something like that the best way to get material would be to go out INTO society.
-ccrdmrbks, I was going to start a post about the Bronte's novels anyway, so i'll do that now. I dont want to hijack Deborah's thread!
CMK

I read somewhere that successful authors make it their 'job'. By that I mean that they have set hours per day that they write, they set goals of pages per day, etc. I'm like the rst of you, life gets in my way, I have a houseful!

Yea, I am a writer. I do a few monthly columns and other stuff. I've gotten paid for my words for over ten years now. It's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work. It is hard to get the kids to understand that when I am at the computer and working, they need to let me be - unless someone is bleeding or a similar emergency. Likewise, since I work from home, people tend to think I have all day to do whatever I want to do and that is usually NOT the case.

I'd like to write a book but truth be told, it is hard to stop writing the stuff I know I'll get paid for to start writing something that is a gamble of my time and energy.

When I speak to writers' groups, I tell them this, "Writers love writing magazines. Why? Because while people who WANT to be writers are reading them, we writers are actually writing and getting paid. It keeps the competition down. My best advice is, if you want to write, then write. Don't read about it." Just FYI. And I also tell them to read books. Lots of books. Something can be learned from each and every one... a bit about dialogue, a snippet about description, but you all know all of this stuff already and I am just rambling. But you'd be shocked at how many people I meet who want to WRITE, but never READ. I'm not sure that can happen.

PAM

I, too, have been writing and editing non-fiction books for over 25 years. But I love to read fiction. I took some creative writing classes in college, and wrote some short stories. But, I just don't have the discipline or the drive to write fiction. And like PAM says, it's hard to stop writing something you know you'll get paid for in order to write something that may or may not sell. I attached a link to my Web site if you want to see what I've done.

I almost got to do some fiction editing, though, for a former literary agent of mine. But she decided that she didn't want to do that to me ... whatever that means.

Anyway, I think the main reason I don't write fiction is that, although I love to read stories, I just don't have a headful of stories that I want/need to tell. So for now I'll let others tell theirs. And some of them do it so very well.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Web Site

One of the literature classes I took in college involved us having to write a short story in the style of the author we had just read. It was fun and challenging.

Good writers can't be hermits, but writing is a solitary pursuit. Very few people could be like Jane Austen, sitting at a table in the middle of the family as they go about their daily business. I'm lucky, as my other job is teaching, so I get plenty of social interaction-and most of it is with my target audience! I have been in a class when they realize that the story they are reading has my name on it-great fun.

Editing is a completely different animal-I have editied both fiction and non-fiction, and non-fiction is much easier. Fiction is much more emotional.

When my children were younger, it was very hard to find the time to write during the day-so I wrote in the evenings when Daddy would do kid duty, or at night after bed time, or before they woke in the morning. Fortunately for me, I like to get up early and putz around before the day starts anyway. Now that they are grown and out, I can write during the work day like normal people-but the habits of years are still there and morning or evening suits me best. My editors are one or two time zones behind, so we can still communicate in their office hours if need be.

Yes! I did try an historical novel about Mary Boleyn some 50 years ago but found she had not a lot of interesting things happen to her apart from being Henry the Eighth's mistress so I gave it away. (Must read Philippa Gregory's book some time!)
I had more luck with writing mildly humourous articles for several newspapers and magazines where I was employed as general staffer and dogsbody. I got a lot of inspiration talking to the local people who worked in charity shops. They had some wonderful stories as did the police! The things that go on, you would think they were made up!
I mostly read now but have recently sent a piece to a magazine in hopes someone in the editorial department will pay for it.
My old dog needs very expensive heart tablets so I'm wielding the pen, no, it's a computer now, again. Perhaps there is life in this old dog that will help the other old dog!

I have been a writer, on and off, for years. Right now, I am paid as a grant writer for technical academic subjects but I also write for fun (i.e. myself) and try to sell various pieces. I have written a fully-fledged novel and am shipping it around to various agents with no luck yet but I have my fingers crossed.

I used to do a lot more freelance stuff, but I didn't like the ups and downs in income so went full-time at a university for the benefits and security.

I was a professional writer for a major insurance company for a decade, then worked as a freelance writer for another nine years before calling it quits. Real life has intruded, and I'm happy doing the stay at home mom thing for a while while I dream up my next career. I'd always intended to turn my hand to fiction writing, but Georgia Peach described me exactly: I had the bug when I was young, but I never had the discipline. Yup, that's me. I have always been great with dialogue and lousy with plot, which probably explains my non-fiction writing career.

I do still write everyday, whether it's an email, a post online, or a journal entry, and maybe someday when the kids are grown I'll try fiction writing again. In the meantime, I'm happy being a reader.

I hadn't thought of it before you mentioned it, sheriz, but I do write much longer and more detailed e-mails than my friends do, maybe it's that writing bug in me.

Tacking on to Deborah's thought: I even write long, old fashioned letters to some of my friends! I am truly an anachronism, I suppose....

Just finished Steven King's "On Writing" which was part autobiography and part writing advice manual. Very good - excellent, in fact, in parts, and with some great points to consider when you write. It has really fired me up about my writing which has fallen by the wayside lately.

I really recommend King's book to any writers out there, aspiring or established. Just good advice from someone who knows what he is doing. I have not read King's books apart from this one, but was very impressed with this. It will be added to my writing reference shelf and I am even going to pull out the old Strunk and White to refresh myself what they say.

I've dabbled in writing all my life. For most of my life I've kept journals. I wrote stories as a child and young adult. I made no real attempt at publishing anything, though, except for an article that appeared in a scholarly journal some years ago.

A number of books and articles that I translated have been published.

I've written a few poems here and there. And I've done considerable editing for other people over the years.

I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation but never tried to get it published.