Hello, I am Heather B. Moore. My advice to get started as being an author is to find a genre that you really love to read and that you're passionate about and maybe set a story in that same world or that same genre and just start writing. Don't worry about editing yet, just get everything down on the page. Editing and critiquing can come much much later when you have your story down.
First off, my name is Michael Head, author of the Threads of Fate series. Also, I'm a co-author in the Year of the Sword series. It's very blurry, but this is the cover of my first book. I currently have three books written and three more ready for publishing. But anyway, for getting started, the single most important thing about being an author is just to write. There's nothing fancy about it. All you have to do is sit and write. I can't tell you anything else besides that. You have to sit down and you have to write a book, and you have to write every single day, and you have to get better at writing every single day. And if you can do that, if you can continue to write every single day without pause and without fail, and set a word goal for yourself and hit that word goal every single day, then you will gradually improve and you will get to the point where you can become an author.
So don't think too hard. Just sit down and write. If a book's coming to you, just write it. A lot of people think you have to be completely outlined and you have to know all the characters and you have to know everything. You don't. If a story is coming to you, just sit down and write. Don't let your brain think too much. You can always go back and fix it. One of the most exciting things ever is the start of a story. Just the new world. One of the things I thought I needed to know. Actually, I thought writing would be super boring. I thought it'd kind of be like homework. I didn't know writing your own story was going to be way more exciting than reading someone else's. I'm so glad I started writing. I think you should too. Just sit down and just start writing.
How to get started? This is not going to be mind-blowing, but all you have to do is have an idea and start to write. I know that sounds silly and simple, but the world is filled with people who want to write something. And if you just actually sit down and get started, you've already passed so many people in the world. If you write half a story, you have then passed so many more. If you actually complete a draft, you have passed so, so many more. Now, sure, as you're writing, you're going to come up with questions. You're going to realize, hey, maybe I need to flesh out this character more. Maybe my problem wasn't big enough. Really, if you have a great character facing a great problem, you've got enough to get started. But if you actually sit down and start to write, right then you have already pushed yourself forward past what many, many people do. So just get started. Just try. You really can't fail.