Listen. I have entire notebooks that I can look back at and clearly pinpoint that I was inspired, during this time, by this book or that movie.
I can go, 'Oh, look, this was that month when I decided I was going to write dialogue with no dialogue tags and no description, just to see how I might handle it.' Or, 'Here's when I decided not to let anybody speak, ever, and see what I could make of that.' Or even, 'Here's when I decided to give all of my characters over-the-top idiosyncratic speech patterns.'
I have entire. Notebooks. Where I just threw spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick.
Is any of that writing good? Isfet, no. It's terriby juvenile, and half-baked, and while it may have the odd clever turn of phrase that doesn't mean it should ever see the light of day.
What I'm saying is- practice. Honestly, just practice. Just write. Just throw words onto your page or your typewriter sheet or your- hell, your phone screen for all I care. Write as much as you can. Fill out all those random shower ideas.
It won't be good. It won't be the next Tolkien or Lovecraft or whoever it is you aspire to be. It won't even be you, not yet. But that's the whole point of those notebooks you'll bury at the bottom of your wardrobe in embarrassment and hope to forget- they're to help you find you.
(And, yes, keep them. Because sometimes you lose yourself. And it's always worth having the blueprints, the roadmap, the star chart to help bring you back to yourself)
