The first rule Heinlein set out was . . . well, you must write.
This sounds simple enough. If you're a painter, you need to paint. If you're a woodworker, you work with wood. If you love fixing up old cars, you must have knowledge of auto mechanics. So writers must write.
This doesn't necessarily mean "butt in chair" in order to accomplish this. And one also doesn't need a computer or laptop in order to do so either.
Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, known for writing large epic fantasy novels, writes using a stand-up walking desk. Another fantasy/science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson takes his writing outside, hiking in the Colorado mountains, while using a handheld recorder to dictate many of his stories. Neil Gaiman writes many of his tales by hand, in a notebook, using a fountain pen.
My earliest recollections of writing were when I was in second grade. I would grab a notebook, scribble out a title, and then start writing a few pages before moving on to the next tale. I never finished (oops, getting ahead of myself with rule number two), but I started many stories. In 7th grade, I upgraded to a typewriter (imagine the one in the movie Misery). I churned out 30-40 pages, single-spaced, of a ninja trilogy before stopping and never finishing.
It wasn't until I went to college at Bemidji State University that I wrote on my Brother word processor and became more serious about my writing. There were many days where I wrote every single day, even if it was just a page or two.
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