text: Read everything that you can get your hands on: fiction, non-fiction, highbrow, lowbrow, books, journals, newspapers, magazines. Don't just read the highbrow stuff. So much of life comes from less than stellar sources, so embrace it.\n\nAs for writing, the best thing to do if you want to write and don't know what to do, or how to begin is start writing a journal, or even better, a notebook and fill it with ordinary events, larger events, interesting words, anecdotes, rants, other people's conversations, doodles and even things you read in magazines or on the back of a shampoo bottle. Everyday life can provide tremendous  material for writing.