[casaubon]

As Isaak Dinesen said, write a little every day, without hope and without despair.

Just write, write, write. Get in the habit of it. Learn what works and what doesn't. For a long time, your ideas aren't going to be good, and the words and thoughts won't match. It's unbelievably frustrating.

Over time, you'll start to learn how words work, how sentences work, how commas work, and how they build something. It's very much a craft, and it takes a lot of time and patience to even start getting good.

Find a network, whether a blog that some friends read, or a class, or a group that meets once in a while. Getting feedback is hugely important, because so many times, you'll know what you're trying to do, but you're not going to be getting it across to others. You'll need to see your stuff through the eyes of someone who doesn't know what you're saying, but wants to.

Finally, most importantly, read more than you write. Read great stuff, of course, but read the borderline, or even cr@ppy stuff too. With the bad stuff, you'll see the mechanics. There won't be much art to it, so you'll see how the thing gets built, what works, what fails, where things breakdown.

Good luck. It's incredibly rewarding once you get there, but the work is daunting, to say the least.