If you think you can write, then start writing. Begin with what you know, explore what you feel and write it down. My inspiration when I began writing were other people's stories. I began with the story of a young man who was gay and had never come out to his "macho" Dad. I felt compelled to explore how both men felt and reacted to such a dilemma in their lives. Then I saw an interview about a man who had been in prison 50+ years. That became a play that was produced several times. When I went to visit this man in prison, I observed the women that were also waiting to see their men in prison. Wives, sisters, mothers, all sitting there on a Sunday morning waiting for a couple of hours a month with their men. That became another play, "Women Outside the Walls".

Oral histories of our families are being lost and will perhaps disappear with the next, ipod, computer, blogging, text messaging, generation. Each of us has a rich family history. For eons, the story tellers of each tribe would go from village to village and tell stories. Our elders have wonderful stories to tell us. You have a family story! Write it down!
That's how my "The Guyer Girls" was born. My mother told me these wonderful quirky stories about her and her six sisters. Write it down!

If you hit a "dry spell", or a "block"...........what I do is leave it alone. Start relaxing and forget about writing. All of a sudden I will begin to write in my head and then I go to the keyboard. Don't force it. If someone tells you, 'you must write for an hour a day', ......well, that's okay if it works for you. That doesn't work for me. I wait until it starts to flow and then I write every minute I can. And send it out. Whatever genre you write in, send it out. And keep writing! It only gets better!!

And don't be afraid of the 'delete' key. Yeah, every word you write isn't gold. Less is more...........there will come a day when you love your delete key!