This article is for anyone who wants to write — a book, a blog, a screenplay, whatever — but doesn’t know where to start.

First, let’s get some outdated myths out of the way. Here are some things that you don’t need in order to be a writer:

• An agent.
• Any idea of how the publishing world works.
• An inspiring idea for a bestselling novel.
• A widely read blog.
• A lot of time.

Here’s the truth:

You will never have enough time to write. You will not wake up one day with the inspiration you’ve been waiting for to get started. The traditional publishing world is irrelevant and becoming more so everyday. Trust me, whatever you’re waiting for to happen before you sit down to write: it won’t.

Here’s what you do need to be a writer:

• You need to start writing.

Specifically, you need to write every single day. Not once a week, not once every few weeks. Everyday. Aim low: 50-words a day, everyday. If this sounds ridiculously easy — good.

Like most new challenges, you may experience an inspirational ecstasy when you commit to getting started, so you’ll set ridiculously high goals. Kind of like “I’m not eating carbs anymore” when you realize you need to eat healthier. You’ll sign up for “1500-words-a-day” challenges and find yourself miserable on day 5. Your momentum will be gone before you’ve even really started.

Let’s bypass that pit, and start small:

Write 50 words a day, everyday.

“Just 50 words a day? I’ll never get anything finished!”

Give it a shot, and you’ll be surprised. I motivated myself to start writing this blog post by telling myself I only needed to write 50 words today. I’m at 460 as we type. There’s the magic: most days, you probably won’t stop at 50.

The pressure of “needing to get something finished” is the bully-ing, counterproductive thought that is keeping you from writing right now. Maintaining a goal of 50-words a day keeps the process smooth, approachable, possible.

Once you get started, the act of actually WRITING has this magical side effect: it distracts you from the bullshit thoughts of “your writing will be bad!” and “you are not a writer” or worse, “I’ll get started another day.” You start writing and you get lost in the practice and find that 50 words has grown to 100 and then more.

“But I have a day job.”

Having a day job is a very compelling reason to put off writing. You work all day, come home tired, and decide to get started another day. The truth is, you won’t.

That’s why all you have to do is write 50-words everyday, starting today. Sit down in the evenings, and work toward your goal in small, daily steps. This will do good things for you. You will develop your writing muscles (as well as your bestselling ideas) slowly and steadily over time.

Today, I sat down to write just 50 words. Now I’m at 749 words on this article. I’ll probably reach 1,000 before I feel like stopping, and I can promise you I did not feel inspired to write 1,000 words when I woke up today.

So if you want to write:

Write 50 words a day, everyday. No matter what. Yes, even on days that you’re hungover, or on days that you think maybe you don’t want to be a writer, after all.

I’m at 851 words now, and I don’t feel like writing anymore. Probably because I told you I’d reach 1,000 today. That unnecessary pressure snuffed out my desire to keep going.

So I’m going to stop writing now, but that’s okay, because I wrote 50 words today. Tomorrow, I’ll write 50 more.