Learning about writing can become a vocation of its own. There are so many books, so many classes, and so many theories. It can be daunting to know where you should start and when you should stop. Hard to know which guru to listen to and which you should ignore. In my writer education I've come to some conclusions about learning to write that I think apply to every one.

Get Lots of Info

There is a lot of information about writing and I think you should read as much of it as you can. There is no single source that has all the answers and you can gain something from everybody that has something to say about writing. Always be on the lookout for new things you can learn about writing. The process will taper down but never truly ends. You can never know everything and new ways of looking at old thing arise constantly.

What Appeals To You

Once you jump into reading as much as you can about writing you'll find certain things stick with you. These are the things you should delve more deeply into and come to understand them so well that you don't think about them anymore. What kind of writing you do will be a reflection of you as a writer, there is no right or wrong but only what works best for you and what you want to do.

There Are No Simple Answers

In your quest to learn about writing don't assume you will find a single book or single person that knows it all and you must do whatever they tell you to do. You can try to copy another person's way of writing but it will be false. Just as sooner or later your true self emerges, you'll find forcing yourself to adhere to principles you don't truly believe is not sustainable.

Learning About Life Helps

Aside from just living your life and trying new things that interest you, there is a lot of educating you can do on the topic of humans in general. The history of writing can give you insight into the essence of it. Reading about conflict in general can help you understand why humans engage in it. Understanding the psychology of people can help you create characters that ring true. A comprehension of what people want out of life will help you better put together goals for your characters.

No Replacement For Trial And Error

No book will give you a step by step guide to writing successfully. Ultimately it will require writing poorly, recognizing you are writing poorly, seeing what exactly you can do to get better, then writing better. This will take time and effort and there is no program or pill you can buy to get around it. Don't think you are wasting your time if everything you write won't be published or even read by people. Athletes practice a thousand times what they might do once in game. Writing is a practice and there is no other way.

Your Process Will Be Personal

The way you write will be like nobody else writes. You needn't feel guilty that you don't write as many words per day as another writer or feel better that you are more prolific than others. You can only do the maximum you can do and only you know what that is. You can steal ideas from others that work for you and cut things that don't serve you but this isn't a contest, it's not a race. It's a practice, a lifestyle. It's going to be idiosyncratic the way you write and what you write. Humans are all unique and their expression can be nothing less.

A writer's education is important. There are some that say they just learned to write from reading novels and to them I say good luck. Not all of us can understand things without analysis. For those that don't get it at a gut level there is a process for us to integrate these things into our being that "gifted" writers seem to understand implicity. The writers that are "born" with it are no more worthy of writing than you. Just because it takes you effort doesn't mean you are less of a writer. So learn as much as you can from many people, take what makes sense and make a process. Change what doesn't work and hone what does. Then just do it.