Want to be a creative writer? Stop waiting for the ship of inspiration to come in and start writing something–anything. Patrick Kurp of Anecdotal Evidence points to Samuel Johnson as an example of writing by choice and skill, squelching the worry that you aren’t doing something original.

How many young and not-so-young people torment themselves with writerly dreams only to end up working at the dollar store or in media relations? We tend to write what others have already written – this is both inevitable and not always a bad thing. How often are new genres created or old ones revived?

Thanks to Frank Wilson for pointing out this post and throwing in a poem on Prince Charles and the new Mrs.