There are times when it may feel like you're not cut out for writing.* But you don't need some bizzaro Greek muse sitting on your shoulder to write well.  Writing is a craft, like building a chair or cutting a diamond.  You want to write?  Learn your craft. Look to other writers for inspiration or ideas, but pay attention to your own gifts (even if you're not sure what they are yet).  It may take you two years to do something someone else completes in six months.  Just keep writing. Links to Pacific Northwest writing organizations: SCBWI-WA SCBWI is an international professional organization of children's writers.  This local chapter provides monthly meetings and an excellent conference in the spring. Whidbey MFA Students The Whidbey Island Writers Association MFA is the only one in the country run by a writing organization.  This student website has writing tips and a monthly writing contest (open to children's writers). Pacific Northwest Writers Association All genres of writing are covered by this professional group based in Seattle. Hugo House A Seattle arts center for poetry and writing.  Excellent programs for writers young and old. Links to my friends in Eastside Children's Writers: Molly Blaisdell  A gifted novelist with a unique voice.  Her fiction and nonfiction are a joy to read.   Vijaya Khisty Bodach  The first time I heard an excerpt from Vijaya's YA novel I almost gave up writing then and there.*  A talented writer of fiction and nonfiction. Kevan J. Atteberry  An illustrator/writer and creator of memorable characters.  (Of course, he's a memorable character himself.) *When self-doubt starts hammering me hard I re-read sections of Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.