Wanna be a writer? Seems a lot of us do. A survey carried out to mark the launch of WH Smith's Raw Talent competition discovered we are a nation of would-be authors.
Almost 50% of respondents said they would like to write a book, with thrillers and biographies leading the choice of genres. When you finally get around to taking the first steps to creating something, you will find plenty of support, information and practical help on the net - as well as outlets for your work.
There is nothing to stop you setting up your own site and posting your work there, but you can increase your readership by submitting it to one of the thousands of e-zines dedicated to publishing original work online. They are often in the weirdest of niche areas that commercial publishers would not touch, and you are highly unlikely to get paid. But think of the glory.
Since 1993, John Labovitz has been maintaining his list of 4,000-plus e-zines at www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list, and is asking for someone to take over its time-consuming maintenance. Or, you can go further, and publish your own e-book.
Famously, Stephen King abandoned his e-publishing venture halfway, but there are authors who say they are making decent money from self-publishing this way. The e-author Angela Adair-Hoy tells you how she and others do it at www.writersweekly.com. If you are keener on the dead-tree route to published fame, screen-loads of advice is available at www.publishers.org, where some good people at the Publishers Association pass on information about copyright in the UK, ISBN numbers and getting an agent.
More support for writers - aimed especially at women - comes from the magazine Mslexia, itself a paper publication, but with a workwoman-like website containing a selection of useful articles and a subscription form. One of the biggest UK sites for creative writing was started by Gary Crucefix, who describes himself as an "amateur writer".
His site Fiction House is growing all the time, and has an impressive selection of links. The page on different webrings for writers will put you in touch with even more resources.
Crucefix says he "strives to offer content and opportunity which is educational and informative to writers of all genre's". That apostrophe is, I am sorry to say, Crucefix's own. Call me picky. You may want to learn more about the whole craft of writing including, probably, where to put apostrophes, by following a course; you can, naturally, do it online. Nottingham Trent University's online writing school, Trace, invites you to try out online learning with its live web-based open days, where you can chat to tutors and students, join a writing workshop and find out if you want to take it further.
Getting published is only one way of getting a buzz from writing. The other way is to win a competition. There are dozens, here and overseas, and although prizes are on the titchy side (£50 or £100 are common) and you may even have to pay to enter (£3 seems fairly standard), it could be the one way you are likely to see any cash from short story writing or poetry.
Find out about competitions at New Writing North, one of the easier writers' sites to navigate.
"There's nothing wrong with fulfilling your desire to see your work in print by paying a vanity press to publish it - as long as you know exactly what you're getting for your money. Sadly, some vanity or 'cosmetic' presses can seem to promise more than they can deliver," says their expert contributor, Johnathon Clifford. Kick-start the creative juices each morning by subscribing to the A-Word-A-Day email list.
It is free, fun and takes about 10 seconds a day to read the word, its etymology and quotations using it. How about zugzwang, a word from chess, which means "a position where one is forced to make an undesirable move".
Details from www.wordsmith.org/awad. Read about words at www.worldwidewords.org, and check your spelling at the OneLook dictionary site, www.onelook.com.
Frustrated poets can find rhymes at www.rhymezone.com - into the search box with your word, and click; but there was not one for "orange". For real life writing support from real people, join a writers' circle: find your nearest one at www.author.co.uk/circles. And for no-holds-barred advice for screen-writers, see www.craftyscreenwriting.com. Tip of the week? "Write what you love - never write from hunger," says the writer Alex Epstein. "If you are writing from hunger, your script will tend to suck."
