One generally isn't born a writer. And thank goodness for that because moms wouldn't like the reviews of childbirth that their babies wrote. One has to learn to write. We've been told over and over again that the key to being a writer is reading a ton, experiencing life and practice, practice, practice. Okay, great. Makes sense. But how to even start?
Sometimes the hardest sentence you will ever write is the first. Sometime just the act of starting is almost a near-herculean task. After all it's going to be a million words and a thousand days between the first word and the first word that gets published. That's daunting. Even more daunting is admitting that you don't know how to write before you start. Your brain hasn't wired itself that way. It has yet to form the patterns and connections between the creative weirdo storyteller right brain and the functional, methodical, practical editor of your left brain.
Don't worry, there's a way.
A very good friend of mine, way back in the early 90's paid me a very important piece of advice. He told me write the weirdest, craziest story you can think of. Let it be twisted, perverted, and just plain strange. When you're done, lock it away or burn it. It's a sacrificial rod to writing.
The brain loves the weird, the strange and the forbidden. Ideas will flow and the creative energy will be there. The words will come fast and furious. And by going into the crazy, the outre, the ominously morbid or overtly sexual parts of your creative brain you will start that creative motor with supercharged fuel. You will light up heretofore unlit parts of your mind, and forge the all important connections between the right brain and the left. And who knows, you might write the next great piece of erotica. Can't be any worse than 50 Shades.