So, my main advice for this first section is to read. I know it sounds weird. But the best authors were readers at the beginning. Even if it's just a picture book, read the captions. You can learn a lot that way.

Plus, reading can help inspire a short story or even a novel. For me, it was a video game. Yes, even the media can help get those cogs turning. I loved it so much, but it left a hook at the end. I acted out the sequel with my childhood best friend.

And I wanted to remember it so I wrote it down during math class. And it became my first short story of 11 pages. I was so proud of it. Then I turned it into a novel.
 
Stories are the best way to help aspiring authors or writers because other authors help people's imaginations to run wild. Take Bram Stoker's Dracula, for example. How many novels or short stories have been inspired or written because of this novel?

Without it, the vampire genre wouldn't be the same. He cemented what a vampire is. They can't go out into the sunlight. Garlic offends them. There are no reflections of vampires. They need to return to their coffins. And oddly enough, he was inspired by stories of Vlad the Impaler. 
 

Mary Shelley's inspiration was her own life. After losing her baby, she went into a depression and from it she drew Frankenstein's Monster. To this day, everyone knows who Victor Frankenstein and his monster is. 

Don't be afraid to draw from life experiences, even if they're bad. They make the best plots. And don't give up.