The longer answer that you need to find a peer group or community that encourages practicing and gives meaningful feedback, because writing something you know no one will ever read is a stressful and exhausting chore.
To lay our my priors and sources, I've been an amateur writer for about ten years. I started with fanfiction back in college, and I've since been published in a few sci-fi periodicals. I'm told I'm pretty good, though I certainly didn't start that way.
A lot of professional writers will say that fanfiction is bad practice for becoming a writer -- that it teaches bad habits, that it disincentivizes world-building, and... (read more)
The short answer is: practice practice practice.
The longer answer that you need to find a peer group or community that encourages practicing and gives meaningful feedback, because writing something you know no one will ever read is a stressful and exhausting chore.
To lay our my priors and sources, I've been an amateur writer for about ten years. I started with fanfiction back in college, and I've since been published in a few sci-fi periodicals. I'm told I'm pretty good, though I certainly didn't start that way.
A lot of professional writers will say that fanfiction is bad practice for becoming a writer -- that it teaches bad habits, that it disincentivizes world-building, and... (read more)